The events before Perfect Dark
by Peachrocks
Summary: This story takes place 8 years before Perfect Dark, but the world was hardly a peaceful place. Since Jo is still in school, Jonathan Dark starts his first assignment after his excellent results in training. COMPLETED
1. Introduction and pre story

Disclaimer: I don't own Perfect Dark or anything involved in it but you knew that.  
  
This story is based on the events before Perfect Dark, when Joanna was still a girl in high school and Carrington had her eye out for eye in the future so she won't be appearing too much in this fic and no Jon and Jo are not brother/sister in this fic either. What happened while Jo was in school though? Surely the world was not a peaceful place with strange disappearances happening of animals, humans and stuff. Jonathan Dark, the top agent of the Carrington Institute (at the time) is the star of this fic. Jonathan is 21 years of age and his records in the training are excellent. Perfect Dark had a story of events that happened before the actual story took place and this is no exception so here is the pre-story.  
  
The year is 2006. Carrington has heard a strange beeping noise from his computer it could mean only one thing. A strange space ship has landed but the location is uncertain.  
  
"Grimshaw we've got a strange alien ship here" Carrington called out  
  
"Yes… I've got it, but I can't hack through its defences we'll never know what it is" A younger looking Grimshaw replied  
  
"Hmm, not a great start to your career" Carrington looked at the computer as the red flashing continued.  
  
"I'm sorry Sir, but my Data Uplink device works at least… our agent has just had success according to his last report" Grimshaw tried to change Carrington's mood he only had got this job two weeks ago   
  
"That's true, don't worry about me I'm just in a bad mood" Carrington still didn't look at Grimshaw just hoping he could work out what this ship was and where it was.  
  
"Okay Sir, I'll keep working on it" Grimshaw left the room   
  
Unfortunately for Carrington, neither he or Grimshaw couldn't find a way around the problem and in the end even the notification the fact the ship was on Earth had disappeared. Did the ship leave? Or did it further improve its defences to evade our detection?   
  
"Still no luck…. Damn it" Carrington was frustrated. Grimshaw was eating some lunch at the CI cafeteria.   
  
"I've got an idea, but only if you are willing to go ahead with it" Grimshaw said to Carrington, he really needed to think up something and wasn't sure whether Carrington would be too happy that he knew about something he shouldn't.   
  
"And?" Carrington was desperate. After a few months of the spaceship landing strange disappearances started happening, mainly animals but also a few humans too. Whether this was coincidence or the work of the things on the space ship Daniel wasn't sure.  
  
"You could contact those aliens you contacted several years back" Grimshaw said nervously  
  
Carrington frowned "What aliens?" Carrington said defensively   
  
"I found out by accident, I'm sorry Sir but you sound desperate" Grimshaw replied still nervous because in truth Grimshaw hacked into Carrington's computer once and found him speaking to some alien like creatures and other stuff he really should not have seen.   
  
"Very well, I'm not sure how they will react since I'm not sure how important it would be to them and I don't want to blow relations with them, I've gotten so far already" Carrington wasn't happy that Grimshaw knew about the Maians, but also thought it may be the answer. Carrington immediately got up and tried to contact the Maians through his main computer. He spoke to one of them after about a minute of trying to get through but could see a fire fight behind him.  
  
"I'm sorry, this is a bad time don't mind me" Carrington now thought that this was a stupid idea why'd he even bother, he's now really endangered relations with Humans and Maians. Although a few CI weapons and other technology were improved with Maian technology, Carrington wasn't sure they fully trusted him.   
  
"Our enemy is attacking, but we are repelling the attack so we can speak to you for a moment Mr. Carrington" the Maian at the other end replied  
  
"Not that it is important but strange disappearances have been happening here and we detected a strange ship on our planet" Carrington said   
  
"You are important to us, we too detected a strange ship head towards your planet we suspect it is our enemies the Skedar. We have been in war with them for too long now, neither side is making gains. We would send someone to help you investigate but we are unable to at this time, however we will keep in contact" the Maian replied  
  
"Thank you" Carrington replied before the Maian hung up the line, and Carrington saw a blank screen.  
  
4 years later…location Lucerne tower.  
  
"Cassandra, I wish for you to take charge of this project" A man said to her from behind a desk   
  
"Really Luke? Me?" Cassandra replied trying to hide her sarcasm, she really despised Luke. Cassandra was the co-head of dataDyne. She wanted to be the head but it wasn't happening anytime soon because that would mean he would have to retire or resign and neither was happening anytime soon. She desperately wanted power and he was screwing dataDyne over by playing fair or not taking any cheap opportunity.   
  
"Yes Cassandra, this project is very important" Luke flicked through some papers and signed some of them  
  
"Thank you Luke" she said with a bit of sarcasm but Luke didn't notice  
  
Cassandra walked out frustrated as she headed to her office on the floor below the one she was on now, although dataDyne was still making decent profits it was nowhere near as good as what it could have been, if only she was in command. Then a wicked plan crossed her mind but how would she pull it off. Just then the phone rang.  
  
"Hello that you Cassandra" the male voice asked  
  
"Trent Easton?" Cassandra was surprised although she knew Trent, they weren't doing anything officially in business so she wondered why he was calling.  
  
"Yes, I want to talk to you sometime meet me tonight at the Nespenta hotel" Trent said  
  
"Very well" Cassandra replied and hung up the phone, what did Trent want to talk about she wondered.   
  
Cassandra walks into the hotel it was three blocks from Lucerne tower so it didn't take long for her to get there. Trent was already at the drinks bar waiting for her.  
  
"Hi Cass let's move to the secret room" Trent said to her it was unlike him to call her Cass but she ignored it. Trent pulled a switch as the table went underneath the ground as he had done many times. They ended up in a soundproof room.  
  
"As you know there have been strange disappearances lately and the NSA are exploring them" Trent started… "Also as you know, I am second in command and that idiotic moron who is control of the operation is screwing everything up, it frustrates me to death… but you wouldn't understand though…" Trent wondered why he even told Cassandra, although he could trust her and he had spoken of his disagreements with the head of the NSA before, what could she do about it.  
  
"Trent I would understand, because I've got exactly the same problem" Cassandra said "and I've got a plan, but I will need your help" Cassandra looked at Trent who seemed keen to listen.  
  
"Go on" Trent smiled evilly knowing how badly Cassandra was addicted to power.  
  
"We could make it look like Luke and your head got caught in these disappearances" Cassandra thought that plan sounded stupid even when it came out of her mouth  
  
"Come on Cass, I know you better you know full well that's not possible, where would we hide them they have detection stuff all over them and if we killed them it wouldn't take long for them to work out who" Trent's face feel what was Cassandra thinking.  
  
"Maybe if… we put them in the dataDyne building in Italy" Cassandra suggested  
  
"And that would be better than anywhere else because?" Trent asked  
  
"Because the guards there are loyal to me, they would welcome me as the head. Also there is no way any detection device works through the interference waves" Cassandra said and smiled evilly and Trent thinking it through.   
  
"But how do we capture them?" Trent asked  
  
"Simple, invite them for drinks here and say there is some business talk as well, say we have a plan to help the disappearance problem" Cassandra amazed herself then, not bad for just a few seconds thought. Trent smiled he knew there would be little chance of anything going wrong and both of them would finally get the power they desired.   
  
The next day the plan could not have gone more smoothly, Trent and Cassandra used Trent's private jet and head off to Italy with their cargo in the back. They then place them in the building and give them separate rooms, and kept them well fed. If they ever did need to use them again no need to torture them, and they could kill them when they wanted to.  
  
Shock went through both organisations but accepted both Trent and Cassandra as the new leaders of their respective organisations. However a month later Cassandra receives a phone call in her new office.  
  
"Hello Miss De Vries" a voice said  
  
"Who is this?" Cassandra demanded   
  
"I am from a race of aliens, and I want to meet you" the voice replied  
  
"Aliens? Yeah right I haven't heard that one before, don't ever call again" Cassandra furiously slammed down the phone, why on earth did those morons put through that call.   
  
However the alien at the other end was a Skedar, who had found out about a mysterious weapon on this planet and were attempting to find it, as well as anything else on the planet that could be useful in their war against the Maians, since fighting seemed to be gaining no ground. He was furious that an inferior human had rejected them, he need to teach this fool a lesson he would need to be slightly careful so he'd have to look like the natives here. He'd need no back up, no human weapons are a match for Skedar shield armour, he wanted to meet this woman who seemed to do anything for power maybe she could be of remote use and she'd do anything for even the slightest piece of our superior technology.   
  
The Skedar while in human form killed or stunned most of the dataDyne guards and found Cassandra in her office.  
  
"Who are you!" She demanded looking at a man in a white trench coat.   
  
"Remember the call you got today? About Aliens" The strange man replied   
  
"Yes that wasted 10 seconds of my time now get lost before I call security, how did you even get in here" Cassandra was a little concerned as she saw a guard behind the man dead  
  
"Foolish human, you have clearly underestimated our power; however I am willing to forgive you, I see you have a similar seeking for power as we do. Like how you captured your former leaders" the man smiled at the shock on Cassandra's face. How did he know?  
  
"Why… are… you here" Cassandra was a bit more intimidated by this strange man   
  
"I am willing to help you, give you enough technology to become the greatest company on this planet, however we too need something in return" the man told her and Cassandra felt dollar signs go into her eyes, but was this guy for real.  
  
"Prove it to me your have superior technology" Cassandra said and the Skedar still in human form suddenly disappeared. She was annoyed with herself, he was just playing with her. She walked into the middle of the room and swore to herself thinking how could she be so stupid. Just then the man reappeared behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.  
  
"ARGGGGGGH!" Cassandra screamed out of surprise  
  
"Cloaking device, it allows us to become invisible but it has a limited power supply" The man explained  
  
"And who are you?" Cassandra asked  
  
"You may call me Mr. Blonde" Mr. Blonde said to her   
  
"How can I be certain that you are aliens?" Cassandra was still sceptical about this entire thing until that very moment that the man before her transformed into a dinosaur/lizard like creature, and immediately back again.   
  
"Proof enough?" Mr. Blonde said to her and Cassandra only nervously nodded. "We are looking for a spaceship that we detected was on this planet. It is ours and has some stuff we need from it, however we are unable to find it. We need your help to find it, since you know this planet better than we do" Mr. Blonde said and Cassandra just went over it on her mind as she saw the power she could get from this.  
  
"And what's in it for me?" Cassandra asked  
  
"We have technology that will allow you to intercept any ships regardless of defensive they have, maybe you have need for it" Mr. Blonde asked and Cassandra knew an extra protection method from anybody trying to find the former leaders would be very much welcomed.   
  
She immediately called Trent and he came over within 15 minutes, the Skedar again proved who he was and Trent too saw the dollar signs go into his eyes, knowing that if they could implement their weapon technology into their own weapons they would make billions, maybe more. Just then Cassandra had a thought, she had suspected her rivals at the Carrington institute had been using alien technology as well.  
  
"I have something to show you" Cassandra said to the human/skedar as she showed him down to the weapons lab   
  
She showed the Skedar the Falcon, the workhouse weapon of the Carrington institute. The Skedar inspected the weapon, he immediately knew it had Maian technology and knew that he had to install the defense systems, so if any meeting between the Maians and this Carrington Institute took place they would know about it and be able to counteract it. However another thought entered the Skedar's mind, what if the Maians were already on Earth, what if they were too late and the Maians had found the ship which had this weapon capable of destroying an entire planet. What if they were still looking for it.   
  
"So?" Cassandra asked the Skedar as he was still in thought of all the possibilities that were caused simply by looking at this weapon, better not let her know of the weapon that was capable of destroying an entire planet or she too will be looking for it, keep letting her think its our ship she will be too busy dreaming about power.   
  
"This weapon is definitely interesting, it is advanced for your kind but I do not think it has any alien technology" the Skedar said and Cassandra nodded "I wish to install this technology I promised as soon as possible"   
  
Cassandra informed him of the dataDyne building in Italy which could take the technology and be able to catch anybody trying to spoil their plans, then she would somehow have to find this ship to get more technology.   
  
5 years later.  
  
The year is 2015. Jonathan Dark aged 21 has just finished his training and is given training grades that are better than anybody else. His skills more reflect those of one able to be undercover but still was an excellent agent in straight combat, and that's where Carrington needed him most, he had finally received a call from the Maians who were finally able to send help after 9 years, and were instructed to meet in a deserted place. Carrington suggested Victoria Island and would send in Jonathan to meet with this Maian and return back to the CI.  
  
A/N: Victoria Island is the place where AF1 crashes in Perfect Dark.   
  
Carrington's plan however would not go as smoothly as he hoped. The Skedar detected talks between the Maians and humans and knew of their meeting place but they did not know where Victoria Island was, so they had no choice but to ask Cassandra.  
  
"Victoria Island? Why would you want to go there" Cassandra was puzzled as she worked out where Victoria Island was  
  
"Training issues, testing various technology that kind of thing" Mr. Blonde replied   
  
"Very well then" Cassandra gave him the location of the island. She is still suspicious of Mr. Blonde so she follows him from behind after he left the building. He meets with another Skedar in a park and Cassandra uses a cloaking device to hear what they are saying.  
  
"Victoria Island is there?" the other human/Skedar said looking at a map.   
  
"Yes, not surprising our enemies want to keep their meeting a secret at least the Maians definitely aren't anywhere on earth" Mr. Blonde replied   
  
"Wait, there is somebody around us" The other skedar looked around and Cassandra ran not knowing whether it was coincidence that he said that or he actually detected her.   
  
"Ah must be nothing" the other one said when Cassandra was out of earshot  
  
"We will massacre this Maian and whoever this Carrington Institute sends they are no match for us" Mr. Blonde laughed evilly and the other nodded in agreement  
  
Cassandra sent a group of soldiers to Victoria Island, not to get involved but just to see what he looked like. When Cassandra's troops arrive they are detected by the Skedar. Cassandra had around a hundred troops, to the Skedar's 10. However the Skedar think these people are from the Carrington Institute and a fire fight breaks out. The Skedar are hopelessly outnumbered but their technology allows them to take a good deal of Cassandra's troops down however all the Skedar are killed while about 24 of Cassandra troops remain.   
  
Meanwhile…   
  
"Nervous Jonathan?" Carrington asked  
  
"A bit, the first assignment is probably going to be one of my most important" Jonathan loaded his Falcon 2 the recent upgrade to the original Falcon. He also loaded his DY357 Magnum, his weapon of choice. Jonathan had excellent accuracy with both weapons he put them away.   
  
"I wouldn't have sent you if I didn't think you were capable, you are the first agent I can proudly title Dark" Carrington said   
  
"Thank you Sir" Jonathan went onto the jumpship, it wouldn't take long for him to get to his location soon he would start his first mission but he never would of guessed it would have involved meeting an alien. Within 20 minutes of getting on the jumpship it was time for him to start, the pilot landed into the area and Jonathan got out and took out his DY357.  
  
"Jonathan be careful, we detected a fire fight around here a few moments ago. Regardless the mission is as normal, find the Maian tracking device and place it in the cave where they are to land, also make sure nobody sees the meeting. The Maians feared somebody may find out about our meeting, and judging by the weapons used the fight was between dataDyne troops and somebody else, who they are is what we are going to ask our little friend when he arrives" Carrington ordered his instructions over the radio as Jonathan stepped out onto the cold snow, nothing unusual for him though his was trained in places colder than this.   
  
"Understood" Jonathan said through the radio, he breathed in the cold air and composed himself, ready for his first mission. 


	2. First mission Meeting with the Maian

Jonathan took a step forward in search of the tracker device that Carrington told him the Maians would air drop it somewhere around his drop off area. Just then he heard two people talking. He took cover from behind a large rock.   
  
"That was a close call, who were those guys anyway?" one of them said  
  
"I have no idea, they were tough but let's just wait for Cassandra's orders so we can get back inside, it's freezing here" the other replied  
  
These must be Cassandra's guards, Jonathan thought to himself they must have won the fire fight but they don't know who the other side was either. No need to kill them better to stun one of them and get the other to talk.   
  
"What is this?" the first guard asked  
  
"Looks like a strange tracking device, it looks weird" the other responded and Jonathan knew he had to kill them before they touched the wrong button on the tracker. He drew his Magnum stepped out of his cover and shot the first guard while the other turned in surprise and went for his weapon but Jon was far too quick for him and shot him as well. Jonathan reloaded his Magnum and picked up their guns, standard original CMP 50's, nothing special Jon thought to himself. He went for the tracker and activated it with the code and it accepted it and Jon picked it up. He now needed to find the cave, the tracker told him to head in a north east direction. Just then over the radio Carrington's voice is heard.  
  
"We've detected an anti space craft weapon around here you'll need to knock that out before you place the tracker, it shouldn't be too hard to detect it's near that cave" Carrington said   
  
"Received" was Jonathan's reply, standard CI rules to reply with either understood or received unless they had a question or were reporting.   
  
New snow began to fall; Jonathan ignored it as he spotted three guards in the distance. He attached a Scope to the Falcon 2 and got a closer look. He aimed at the closest one and fired, the other 2 came running as Jonathan drew his CMP 50, and fired all 16 shots before it was out of ammo but it was enough, he wondered why the weapon had such a small magazine. He went looking for the device according to Carrington it was nearby that cave, but what Carrington neglected to tell him was there was quite a few caves however it was fairly obvious its location because it was guarded by 6 or so men. He used the latest addition to the CI weaponry, the bomb spy that you could guide into a location and blow it up at will. Jonathan looked out the cave and watched the 3 men walk around the strange looking piece of machinery as the other 3 were looking at it for some reason. Jonathan sent the device in and was able to hear a bit of the conversation.   
  
"What is this giant thing?" One of them asked  
  
"I dunno, but don't fiddle with it, it probably belongs to those guys we killed before" the other responded  
  
"Bah, it looks weird… but what's that thing?" The other turned to the device that had slowly crept past the guards and was listening on the conversation  
  
"Don't touch it, it could…" that was the last Jonathan heard until he set off the trigger blowing it up along with all 6 guards and the device as well.  
  
"Excellent Jonathan, just place the tracker and wait but make sure you get rid of any other guards around" Carrington came through the radio  
  
"Received" Jonathan replied  
  
"Hey you!" A guard drew his weapon and Jonathan turned around and hid back into the cave he came out from as the other fired a few shots, Jonathan quick drew out his DY357.  
  
"I need back up!" the guard shouted over a radio he had in hand and Jon took this opportunity to take a shot. He did and the shot connected. The radio then replied  
  
"Back up sent will arrive in 20 minutes"   
  
Jonathan swore to himself, he didn't know whether Carrington would want him to go ahead with the plan or not.  
  
"Sir, according to an enemy radio back up will be here in 20 minutes, should I go on with the plan?" Jonathan asked over the radio  
  
"Go ahead Jonathan, we should be able to get you out in 20 minutes" Carrington's voice came through and Jon then walked through the cave, it was very dark. He flicked on night goggles, as the tracking device began to make a sound and it got more and more frequent. Jonathan knew this meant he was closing in on the spot, it flashed red and Jonathan then placed it, looking above him he saw an empty hole in the cave, even the snow was falling in here. Jonathan looks around and there doesn't seem to be any other guards around, it was too dark for anybody to see without some kind of light anyway. About one minute later Jonathan hears a humming sound and looks up taking the night goggles back off, he spots what looks to be a saucer and what would be the stereotypical alien ship, he backs up giving the craft room to land into the hole. It squeezed in as it makes it's landing with a single pilot inside. The top of it opens, and a small grey thing, steps out and lands on the snow, he spots Jonathan.  
  
"You must be from the Institute, you are the one my superiors described to me" The small grey thing said  
  
"You speak our language?" Jonathan asked surprised, he didn't know that he would be making a sarcastic remark at somebody who asked the same question 8 years later.   
  
"Yes, we can speak your language. I am protector one; and you are?" protector 1 asked  
  
"I am Jonathan Dark, so everybody calls you protector one?" Jonathan asked trying not to insult the alien, but thought it was strange  
  
"No, my real name translates into something like Elvis but I was told to identify myself as protector one, so you can call me Elvis if you like" Elvis looked around "Isn't this a fascinating place?" Elvis picked up some of the snow that fell.  
  
"Why is that?" Jonathan asked  
  
"What is this? It feels funny" Elvis asked as he held snow in his hand  
  
"Its snow, it falls from the sky when it's cold enough" Jonathan replied  
  
"Fascinating" Elvis said as he looked around some more  
  
"I'm sorry Elvis, but we have to get going" Jonathan was anxious to get out of there but didn't want to insult Elvis either, he too was fascinated by his appearance. Grey skin, a huge head but was much smaller than Jonathan but how his arms and legs were placed similar to humans. Jonathan knew he could ask his questions later but he just had to get out of there first.   
  
"Hmm, I understand plenty of time for sight seeing and questions later" Elvis began to walk towards Jonathan and he lead the way out the cave. When he got there though he saw his point where he was to be picked up was guarded by about 10 men.   
  
"Shoot" Jonathan swore to himself; however Elvis drew a strange blue weapon out and began blasting it with explosions at his attackers. "What are you doing?" Jonathan asked drawing his Magnum  
  
"You said shoot, so I did" Elvis replied  
  
"Oh, never mind" Jonathan fired a few shots and killed the remaining guards   
  
"That weapon what is it?" Elvis asked looking at Jonathan's Magnum  
  
"This is DY357 Magnum, it fires 6 shots before being needed to be reloaded and blows back with the force of the shot and it can penetrate some surfaces" Jonathan replied "And yours?" Jonathan was equally interested in Elvis' gun as he loaded some bluish liquid into it which seemed to reload the weapon.   
  
"This old thing? It's known as a Phoenix, it can fire simple shots or explosive ones nothing special" Elvis said   
  
"That's cool, like how you reloaded it" Jonathan looked at the strange weapon while waiting for the jumpship to return.  
  
"Hehe, I forget you've never seen anything like our weapons or stuff like that have you, just as I have never seen any of what your planet has to offer… Oooo look at this" Elvis pointed to a hovercopter in the air and it was a good thing he did, it was a dataDyne hovercopter with troops coming out. The back up had arrived.  
  
"Dark to Carrington" Jonathan said into his radio starting to head in the opposite direction of where the hovercopter was dropping troops off.   
  
"Carrington here" Carrington responded  
  
"The back up is here how are we going to get out now?" Jonathan continued running with Elvis not far behind  
  
"What? Damn, new technology" Carrington knew that dataDyne had somehow evaded their detection, "I'm on it sir" was Grimshaw's reply from the computer in his office clearly attempting to hack through the new defences  
  
"How long?" Jonathan asked Grimshaw  
  
"Don't worry I've got it now" Grimshaw tapped in a code on the computer   
  
"Thanks Grimshaw" Carrington responded "Right, there are 5 hovercopters dropping 2 groups of men all armed with standard CMP 50's. However one appears to be armed with a DY357, he would be the leader Jonathan, and chances are he is calling the shots so to speak. Take him down and the others will panic our back up should be there in 2 minutes, the hovercopters are going back to somewhere, most likely to pick up more troops. There are only 10 men so your training along with our friend should overwhelm them easily before the second lot arrive " Carrington gave the analysis of the data he was reading on the computer screen while tapping on a keyboard, Jonathan wondered why Carrington seemed so busy most of the time, now he knew why.   
  
"Understood" Jonathan replied and Elvis drew his Phoenix once more and headed back in the direction of the hovercopters, Carrington was right they were leaving.   
  
"It wouldn't hurt to take those down" Elvis fired his Phoenix three times at one of them which exploded  
  
"Nice shot" Jonathan remarked as Elvis put the bluish stuff into the weapon once more as it made a strange sound.   
  
Jon and Elvis took cover using a small cliff face; the 9 guards were running their way a little too fast. Jonathan threw a proximity mine to where they would be running and then took cover again. Jonathan heard an explosion and a few screams which meant he was successful.   
  
"What was that?" Elvis asked  
  
"Proxy mine, will blow up if anybody comes into contact with it once it's set" Jonathan was used to Elvis asking questions on anything Earth like he saw. Jon looked and saw only 2 were out of range of the explosion he took them down while the smoke was still settling.   
  
The person holding the Magnum went to a hovercopter and Jon gave chase but he was already getting away, Elvis fired a few shots but the armour on this one was far stronger. Jonathan cursed to himself knowing who he had just missed his chance to get even with. He sat on a log with Elvis and waited for the Institute's back up to arrive.   
  
*Flashback, 1 year ago.  
  
"Terrance and Jonathan, you are both doing excellently in your training so far. We have nobody else available and your skills could do this mission but you do not have to do this" Carrington looked at the two outstanding would be agents, still in their training but had already shown great skill.   
  
"I'll accept" Terrance said with a slight English accent he was 2 years older and a little taller than Jonathan with short black hair, fairly light skinned, his was half British, half American and a fairly deep scar on his left arm that he had got somehow, nobody really knew about it.   
  
"I will also" Jonathan added  
  
"Excellent, think of this as part of your training we need you to infiltrate the dataDyne office in Brazil, recent activity there has been a concern to us, retrieve documents from the safe and get out " Carrington made it seem so simple "Understood" he said  
  
"Yes sir" the two replied  
  
During the night, a jumpship with the two agents in training landed near the dataDyne office in Brazil. Jonathan jumped out and landed safely on the roof, Terrance followed and both drew DY357's, weapon of choice for both of them.   
  
"Scared Jon?" Terrance asked  
  
"A bit, you?" Jonathan replied   
  
"Yeah" Terrance took aim at a security camera and fired destroying it.  
  
Terrance and Jonathan had started their training at the Carrington Institute within a week of each other; they became good friends and rivals. Jonathan went through the roof escape first and came to some stairs looking for cameras, they slowly went down the stairs and got to another door. Terrance went to open it.   
  
"Wait Terrance, probably a fire escape that'll set off an alarm" Jonathan warned him  
  
"You got no guts Jon" Terrance laughed  
  
"You won't have any when you set off that alarm and a guard blasts them out of you" Jonathan pulled out an older version of the data uplink which was made to detect alarms and shut them off. The device found the alarm on that door and shut it off.   
  
"Okay now?" Terrance asked  
  
"Yeah go on" Jonathan pushed the door and a guard saw them but Jon fired and took him down  
  
"Safe is probably in this room" Terrance headed into a room  
  
"Camera!" Jonathan said and took it out just as Terrance was about to go through its sight, how did this guy do so well in training and make so many mistakes, he could be nervous, Jonathan thought to himself. He went after Terrance who was looking around the room.  
  
"Well we haven't got all day, put the damned decoder on it" Terrance said and Jonathan drew the decoder and put it on the safe. It didn't take long for it to do its job. Jon took the documents out and put them away. Mission complete he thought to himself, but they had to get out first. Jonathan and Terrance walked back down the hallway before suddenly 4 guards appeared around them from the roof, Jon went for his weapon.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I were you" Terrance looked at Jon pointing his DY357 at him  
  
"Terrance? What are you doing" Jonathan asked not like there was a need to  
  
"How could I refuse so much money, by simply signing on that line and leaving the rest up to Cassandra" Terrance laughed   
  
"Excellent work Terrance, I see your friend had no idea what was coming for him" Cassandra came from one of the elevators. "Take him into my office, then we'll talk" Cassandra walked into in a room and the guards with Terrance followed with 2 of the guard holding on to Jonathan.   
  
"I suppose you want to know why?" Terrance asked  
  
"I know why, you are a greedy a..." Jonathan started  
  
"Why thank you, no need to finish that there is a lady present" Terrance joked and Jonathan wanted to spit at him.  
  
"How could you call that bitch a lady, she is as evil and low as you are. I suppose you two will get along well" Jonathan was so angry, but wondered why they just didn't kill him right now.   
  
"That's enough! We are going to keep you around a little while, just to see how highly Carrington thinks of you" Cassandra put her hand underneath Jonathan's chin, he couldn't remove it since two guards still held his arms down.   
  
"Take him!" Cassandra ordered but then Jonathan saw the jumpship out the window. Terrance and guards were distracted and tried to shot at it however they broke the glass and Jonathan took advantage jumping over Cassandra's desk and using it as cover picking up his weapon from the desk as the jumpship fired a few rounds over Jonathan's head.   
  
"Retreat!" Cassandra yelled the jumpship's firepower wasn't great but it was enough to cause the guards and Terrance to run. The jumpship got closer to the now broken window and Jonathan jumped inside. He sat back against the wall as it took off and went through the city.   
  
"I'm sorry Jonathan" Carrington said over the radio  
  
"For what?" Jonathan was angry but knew it wasn't Carrington's fault Terrance had betrayed him  
  
"I knew how well you got on, it's lucky you came out alive" Carrington replied he was usually all business but he seemed genuinely sad for Jonathan, not talking about the mission or getting angry that he had lost an agent. Jonathan felt something in his pocket, the documents.  
  
"Sir, I got the documents" Jonathan said,   
  
"You did? Excellent, are you sure you still want to do this job?" Carrington asked  
  
"Yes, I'm sure" Jonathan replied, thinking that one day he would settle the score with Terrance, even if it meant killing him since he had tried to do the same tonight.   
  
*end Flashback  
  
"Are you okay Jonathan?" Elvis asked as Jon saw the jumpship  
  
"What? Oh sorry" Jonathan replied snapping out of it  
  
"It's alright, but you seemed really annoyed when that guy got away" Elvis said getting on the jumpship  
  
"I used to know him, but he betrayed me" Jonathan also got on the jumpship  
  
"I'm sorry" Elvis said  
  
"It's alright, I shouldn't be too worried about it most important thing was to get you here" Jonathan said as Elvis got fascinated again by the jumpship's interior as it went into the sky. 


	3. Second mission Infiltrating dataDyne

A/N: Thanks so much for your reviews. I hope you'll keep reviewing and I hope I don't let you down.  
  
Jonathan and Elvis return to Carrington Institute hangar. Carrington was pacing around the room eager to meet the new arrival. The jumpship opens and Elvis looks around the hangar.   
  
"I am so honoured to finally meet you" Carrington offered his hand but then remember it wasn't Maian custom to shake hands but Elvis took it anyway.  
  
"Thank you Mr. Carrington, your planet is very fascinating" Elvis said   
  
"Yes, one day hopefully we'll be able to visit yours" Carrington replied and Elvis nodded.  
  
"Now business first?" Elvis asked  
  
"Of course" Carrington said as Jonathan and Elvis followed him to his office.   
  
Carrington sat down at a large table which also served as his desk and Jonathan and Elvis sat around.  
  
"Now first things first, did you find out who the dataDyne troops fought before you arrived?" Carrington asked  
  
"I know who they are our enemies in this war that is going on the Skedar, but why they are here I am not sure" Elvis scratched his large head "You said nine earth years back that you had a strange ship and disappearances had been happening, it is certain the Skedar came here with purpose" Elvis continued to think. Jonathan broke the silence.  
  
"What I can't get is why both dataDyne and the Skedar were there in the first place?" Jonathan said  
  
"Bit more than a coincidence, somehow both of them have tapped into our conversation, they knew we were coming. Clearly one thought the other was the enemy and they killed each other" Elvis said and Carrington nodded in agreement.  
  
"What's our next move?" Jonathan asked, Carrington thought for a moment.   
  
"Jonathan I want you to go to Lucerne Tower. Find out what you can on about why dataDyne placed troops on Victoria Island" Carrington said "You will be dropped off on the top of the building, you may need to take out security cameras around you, ideally you could knock out a guard and take his uniform" Carrington gave Jonathan the official CI briefing.  
  
"Is that all sir?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes, we shall be ready for you at 1900" Carrington replied and Jonathan nodded and stood up and headed to the firing range. Foster was testing some of the Maian weapons Elvis had given him.   
  
"Excellent stuff this" Foster took a Phoenix and blasted a moving target to pieces he was quite an accurate shot not as good as Jonathan but good enough to be an agent himself however Carrington needed his weapons expertise. He came out to greet Jonathan.  
  
"Foster, what can you tell me about this weapon?" Jonathan handed him the CMP 50  
  
"It's the dataDyne CMP 50 but you knew that, 16 rounds very accurate for a SMG decent stopping power but the small magazine lets it down, most of dataDyne's guards hold it. I heard they are planning an upgrade called the CMP150 which has double the clip size which would make a very fearsome weapon indeed" Foster sounded like he was quoting directly from a textbook.   
  
"I could do with some training it in, if things go wrong this is the weapon I'm going to have to start off with if I want to keep my disguise until then" Jonathan said. Foster knew what Jonathan was talking about, all the labs get information on missions assigned to agents.   
  
"Very well, not a dependable weapon but it would give you enough time to draw your Magnum" Foster begun to type into the computer and Jonathan walked into the firing range area.   
  
Jonathan begun practicing learning its accuracy and reload pattern. It didn't take long for Jonathan to become fairly decent with it. At 5pm Jonathan decides to head to the device lab, just to see if there was anything new. When he enters a strange device comes to him and flashes, he blinks and spots Natasha the head device lab technician with a small remote control in hand.   
  
"What was that?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Camspy, useful thing isn't it I hope you like your picture" Natasha laughed as the printer in the room printed a picture of a shocked Jonathan.   
  
"Geez thanks" Jonathan replied sarcastically  
  
"You do with it on your mission; it works like the bombspy that Foster developed with us. This one won't blow up, but instead it can transfer pictures back to us as well as any conversation   
  
"Excellent, I may begin to like this device after all" Jonathan said  
  
"I know I can trust you with this, since unlike some agents you are known to return stuff" Natasha handed him the device  
  
"You do have another one don't you? You never know what can happen in the field" Jonathan said concerned, he didn't want to get on Natasha's bad side she was known to give some agents quite a telling off.   
  
"Yes, just be careful with it" Natasha replied "I would like to see it return but I'm more than use to things magically disappearing due to careless acts"   
  
"I'll do my best, but first let me get the hang of how to use this thing" Jonathan said and Natasha handed him the remote  
  
"It's no different to the bombspy, you see through here as usual" Natasha pointed to a small screen that was looking at the door, Jonathan spun the device around and then moved it into Natasha and he nudged her and took a photo of her face.   
  
"Okay, very funny, you understand how to use it?" Natasha folded the device back up.   
  
"Yes, except how do I transfer info back to base" Jonathan asked  
  
"Simply get outside, press this button here" Natasha pointed to a button on the remote control "Understood?"   
  
"Yes thank you" Jonathan took the device off her and put it away it was surprisingly small and fitted quite easily into his pocket. The remote folded up into the device itself, Jonathan still couldn't get over how easily stuff could be concealed   
  
He went into the cafeteria and relax his mind and begun to eat dinner. After he finished he looked at Elvis looking at the fridge.  
  
"How are you feeling Jonathan" Elvis asked  
  
"I'm alright, I'm still a little nervous even though this is my second mission now"   
  
"You remind me of how I was like for my first missions about 290 Earth years ago" Elvis said and Jonathan dropped his jaw  
  
"290 years ago!?" Jonathan said surprised wondered how long a Maian could live for in Earth years  
  
"Hehe, I forgot you guys don't live for too long compared to us do you?" Elvis laughed   
  
"Yeah, still it mustn't be much for fun you being stuck here" Jonathan said  
  
"Actually, I'm trying to learn all there is to know about your planet, but I finding that to be very difficult since there is so much to see" Elvis drunk some soft drink "Oooo… it tickles" Elvis laughed dancing a little bit and Jonathan couldn't help but laugh as well.  
  
"Anyway have to go now, see you later" Jonathan started walked towards the hangar  
  
"Bye" Elvis waved   
  
Jonathan headed into the jumpship yet again, and prepared himself once more for the mission looking over the map Carrington had given him of Lucerne Tower. The jumpship eventually stopped and Jonathan looked for cameras on the outside of the building. None to be seen, he thought to himself. He jumped out and landed on the helipad drawing his Magnum. A guard came out, totally unaware of Jonathan above him, he walked out and looked over the edge of the building. Jonathan crept up slowly to his victim and knocked him out with the side of his pistol. He hid the guard near some crates around the helipad and took his uniform and took the Camspy with him.  
  
"Nicely done Jonathan, only contact us when you are certain it is safe to do so, best plan would be to come back here" Carrington came in over the radio   
  
"Received" Jonathan replied and put away his Magnum and picked the CMP 50 still on the floor after he knocked the guard out.  
  
  
  
Jonathan entered through the door, he noticed 2 cameras. He hoped that they would not notice the difference and lucky for him, the guard he knocked out had similar hair to Jonathan, all Jonathan had to do was keep his face away from the camera. However another guard approached him.   
  
"How you doin'?" The guard asked   
  
"I'm alright, and you?" Jonathan wondered if the guard noticed the difference and he was just playing with him  
  
"I'm okay; watch Terrance he's in a bad mood" the guard said  
  
"Okay, thanks" Jonathan wondered where Terrance was, maybe he'd get a shot off at him but then he remembered his mission should be top priority, his time for killing Terrance would come.   
  
Jonathan continued down the stairs and came to the office levels, Carrington's plan of the building couldn't have been more accurate, as he remembered looking over it on the jumpship. Three guards were chatting together. He needed to find where that meeting room of Cassandra's was, according to the map it was on the bottom floor of the office levels, that was two floors down. He opened the door leading to the stairs and went down two levels he opened the door that lead to the offices on that level. Outside was a guard was impatiently tapping his foot.  
  
"Where have you been?" The guard grumbled "You were supposed to arrive 15 minutes ago"  
  
"I'm sorry, I got delayed" Jonathan replied   
  
"Well, better late then never, at least you showed up" The guard patted Jonathan friendly on the shoulder before leaving. He couldn't believe his luck, he heard two people talking but couldn't quite hear what they were saying he was alone he just needed to somehow hear on their conversation. Then it came to him, that Camspy thing. He drew it out of his pocket and directed at a small hole in the wall, then he could not only hear everything they were saying, he could see them as well. A strange man in a white trenchcoat with somebody he couldn't see properly but judging by her voice and hair there was no doubt in Jonathan's mind this woman was Cassandra.   
  
"I can't believe you interfered, why? It's because of you Carrington got in contact with the Maians, now who knows what will happen" Mr. Blonde was furious but it was matched by Cassandra's own rage.   
  
"If you actually asked me for help you needed it, this would never have happened" Cassandra shouted back. Yup definitely Cassandra, Jonathan thought to himself.   
  
"Foolish human, that single institute agent may have defeated most of your guards, but against 10 Skedar he would have been slaughtered" Mr. Blonde slammed his hand on Cassandra's desk  
  
"He would have called for reinforcements then what?" Cassandra countered  
  
"They would need a force of 70 to have a chance, even then we still had that device that would shoot down the Maian craft and that was somehow destroyed" Mr. Blonde replied   
  
"We had nothing to do with that part of it, stop blaming your failure on me" Cassandra continued to keep her hostile mood.   
  
"Even so your guards failed, they shouldn't have and this is what we do to things that fail" Mr. Blonde took a strange pistol like weapon from the desk and crushed it with his hands. "Maybe this was a stupid idea to trust an incompetent fool like you, I should leave and blow your entire scheme by showing everybody where exactly you hid your former leaders" Mr. Blonde smiled evilly and Cassandra's mood changed entirely.  
  
"I… I'm sorry" Cassandra said   
  
"Apology accepted, be more careful" Mr. Blonde's mood changed as well. He still wanted that weapon, wiping the Maians out of existence would allow so much gain, despite how long it would take to get this stupid human to get it. It was then that Mr. Blonde decided that he would destroy Earth as well if the Skedar was ever was successful in getting the weapon, at the very least he would kill Cassandra when she was no longer required of course it depended upon what his superiors had to say about it maybe they had better ideas.  
  
Jonathan had heard enough, he took a few pictures of them talking. He heard footsteps and quickly drew the Camspy back in.   
  
"Sorry I'm late, I got held up" A guard said coming through the entrance. This must have been the guy who was originally supposed to come  
  
"Okay, that's alright" Jonathan wasn't quite sure how to respond to this so he did the first thing that came to his mind giving the same casual attitude that the guard he originally spoke to had given.   
  
"Thanks man, I owe you one" He replied   
  
"Anytime" Jonathan walked off and headed back to the helipad. Again none of the guards even bothered to question him; it was almost too easy Jonathan thought to himself. He radioed Carrington at the same spot before.  
  
"Dark to Carrington" Jonathan waited for a response  
  
"Carrington here" Carrington replied in about 10 seconds  
  
"Check this out" Jonathan unfolded the remote in the Camspy once more and pressed the button as Natasha instructed him to. Carrington then listened to the recording, after it was finished Carrington sits back in his chair for a moment.   
  
"What should I do?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Clearly the Skedar aren't going to attack dataDyne but what neither Elvis nor I can understand is why they made an alliance with dataDyne in the first place" Carrington said "Also it is obvious that Cassandra's move to the top was done by some kind of kidnapping, but we'll worry about that later, as for now find the dataDyne labs that are said to be somewhere hidden on the bottom floors and bring back photos or samples of their latest technology, be careful though the guards are probably more protective of the bottom floors so your disguise may not last, Carrington out" Carrington clicked off the radio   
  
Jonathan headed back the way he came once more, and waiting for the lift. He entered and it shut for him. He pressed ground floor on the switch and the glass lift headed down the floors he looked at another lift come up from the other side. He looked at the person inside and the person inside the other one looked back, and both recognised each other straight away. It was Terrance. Terrance fired his DY357 and the glass shattered around Jonathan as he drew his CMP 50 and returned the fire but by that time he was out of range and within 10 seconds the alarms were sounding. Jonathan drew his Magnum and 2 guards on the bottom floor fired but Jonathan ducked and shot them both with 2 well aimed shots. He headed down the large stairway but was only met by 4 other guards at the bottom.  
  
"Hey it's him" one of them said and fired their weapons but Jonathan had already started a retreat, hiding behind the steel pillar as the shots harmlessly bounced against it.   
  
He jumped down where the 2 guards previously were. As the 4 guards caught up and fired at Jonathan he walked backwards firing off a few shots and leaned against the wall but as he did the wall turned around. Before Jonathan's eyes was a straight corridor, doors on both the left and right hand sides, there were no guards in sight at all judging by the sounds he heard this must have been the lab that Daniel was talking about. He knew it would only be a minute if he was lucky before they worked out what had happened. He walked down the corridors and entering the final room on the right just as a random guess knowing he'd only have time to look at one room. All Jonathan saw was a weapon with a notebook beside it; it looked just like the CMP 50. He made a quick scan of the notebook  
  
The CMP100 at this point is capable of locking onto targets and track them, although only 2 at one time. We are hoping that the technicians in the other room are able to double the clip size. If they succeed this weapon will make billions in profits, increase the efficiency of our guards and bring dataDyne one step closer to the top. Work on the laser…   
  
That was all Jonathan could read before he could hear the guards coming for him, he took the weapon and the notebook. He blasted the guards who were all crowded around the door with his Magnum. He ran out and pushed against the wall once more and it spun around. The alarm was still going off. He shot the glass out through the front door, and there were about 3 guards which Jonathan dealt with easily.   
  
"Not the planned escape Jonathan but well done" Carrington said  
  
"Thanks, I thought Terrance would expect me to escape through the rooftop" Jonathan said and Carrington laughed  
  
"You two always did try to outsmart each other but you always won. I guess some things never change" Carrington said and Jonathan continued to run watching a hovercopter circle pointlessly around the building. "We are sending Natasha out to get you, she has a new hover car thing she wants try out" Carrington continued   
  
"Thanks" Jonathan replied   
  
Within 2 minutes she had arrived, it looked something like a Ferrari from somewhere in the 90's.   
  
"Nice car" Jonathan stopped running and jumped in the car   
  
"Thanks, did you bring back my Camspy?" Natasha asked pressing a button to draw machine guns from the sides to repel any pursuers.   
  
"Yeah I did" Jonathan handed her the device  
  
"Excellent, I knew I could count on you" Natasha replied and Jonathan smiled as the car floated a little above the ground, they didn't want to fly too high to keep out of sight of the dataDyne Hovercopter.  
  
They drove on for a few kilometres and Natasha looked back, brushing her beautiful long light brown hair backwards.   
  
"Not that they ever gave chase but I think we lost them" Natasha said "Shall we celebrate?" Natasha asked stopping the car.   
  
"I guess" Jonathan replied and Natasha pressed another button and two glasses appeared, and they filled with champagne.   
  
"To your success; and all of those to come" Natasha raised her glass   
  
"One can hope" Jonathan also raised his  
  
  
  
Meanwhile at the Carrington Institute…  
  
"You know I'd say she likes him" Grimshaw said   
  
"Hehe, it's cute. Humans react the same way Maians do" Elvis replied as they were looking over a computer screen through a camera installed in the rear vision mirror  
  
"Okay that's enough let them be" Carrington turned off the computer  
  
"Awww" was both Elvis and Grimshaw's reply, they sounded like little kids just after their parents had said no to ice cream. 


	4. Third mission part 1: Another meeting

Thanks again for your reviews. Joanna will be in this chapter but don't expect much out of her since she is still in school.   
  
Natasha and Jonathan arrive back at the Institute. Carrington and Elvis greet them.  
  
"Good work Jonathan. Foster check this weapon over for us" Carrington said, and Jonathan handed the CMP100 to Foster with the notebook.  
  
"Will do" Foster headed off to the firing range   
  
"I'm sure you are a bit tired so we'll leave the chat until tomorrow" Carrington said and Jonathan nodded  
  
"Thank you sir" Jonathan replied and Carrington walked off  
  
"Got a ride?" Natasha asked  
  
"No, but I'll be fine" Jonathan replied and Natasha too left.  
  
"I think she likes you" Elvis said   
  
"I'm not sure" Jonathan replied   
  
"It's obvious, even to me" Elvis laughed  
  
"Well, I don't want to go too fast" Jonathan said. He did like Natasha, she was fun but had a serious side to her and she was very intelligent and also very beautiful. "What are you doing for the night?" Jonathan asked changing the subject  
  
"I'm staying here" Elvis said and Jonathan nodded  
  
"Don't you get tired of it?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Oh no, Carrington showed me the simulation areas and all around the Institute it's so big" Elvis said, Jonathan reminded himself that almost anything he thought was normal was fascinating to Elvis.  
  
"Okay, see you tomorrow then" Jonathan said and Elvis waved.  
  
Jonathan didn't live far from the Institute so it was within walking distance, he moved nearby ever since he started his training. He lived alone and had done so for a number of years. The Carrington Institute looked like any other office building in the moderately large city although Carrington had been planning a move to a more deserted area for some time. Jonathan entered his house and got changed and headed for bed. Exhausted he quickly fell asleep.   
  
The next morning when he woke up, he had his shower, changed, ate breakfast and headed out to the Institute once again. He reported to Carrington's office, and knocked on the door.  
  
"Come in" Carrington said and Jonathan opened the door.  
  
"Okay, I've gone over the data and Foster has looked at the weapon it has the strangest lock on feature. It is able to lock onto 2 targets and then your gun is basically aimed at the first target and once it's dead or destroyed it moves on to the second, meaning you could be exceedingly accurate with this weapon once you locked onto a target." Carrington explained  
  
"I see" Jonathan replied  
  
"Well we've already thought up of a counter, Foster is designing it now it should be ready soon with Elvis's and Natasha's help" Carrington said and Jonathan nodded again   
  
"What kind of weapon is it?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Oh you'll like it, it's a laptop computer that also folds into a gun, and the computer actually works but the memory is drastically reduced" Carrington said   
  
"Sounds nasty, but surely the mag mustn't be too big either" Jonathan said   
  
"30 rounds is the plan, just as big as your standard assault rifle with a 3x magnification again like an assault rifle but it won't be as powerful as one of course more like your standard SMG" Carrington replied   
  
"Not bad, not bad at all" Jonathan commented  
  
"Not only that, if you run out of ammo you can either set it and throw it away and it will explode like a grenade in 5 seconds or you can use a weak laser function but this will drain the Laptop's energy supply, although some of this is wishful thinking I don't think we'll be able to do all that but one of those things I told you is certainly going to be on the final product" Carrington said   
  
"And what about that meeting I recorded?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Ah yes, obviously the former leaders part must refer to more than one person. Around Cassandra's time Trent Easton was mysteriously promoted in the NSA as well. Cassandra and Trent have worked together on numerous occasions before and after their promotion so it wouldn't surprise me if he was the other person involved, but how deeply I'm not certain. Although this must stay certain if anybody outside the Institute even remotely suspects we are thinking Trent Easton is involved in some kind of conspiracy we could get into a bit of trouble" Carrington said  
  
"So what exactly is my mission?" Jonathan asked  
  
"I want you to go to Italy. Trent is having a meeting with dataDyne executives to supposedly talk about weapons that will be supplied to the NSA but I'm thinking other things will be discussed. I want you to go around to where the NSA has guards posted. They are clearly guarding where the meeting is to take place" Carrington said  
  
"Understood, when do I leave?" Jonathan asked  
  
"In about an hour, not that I need to say it but go into the area as a civilian and just so you know, it's a moderately large city so you will need to find way around that doesn't involve blasting the guards, although you probably wouldn't try that anyway" Carrington said and Jonathan got up to leave. "Oh Jonathan, I would like you to meet these people we are looking into for future agents, give me your thoughts" Carrington got up from his chair   
  
"Why do you want my opinion I'm just new?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Ha, maybe but already you've been through some tough situations, also you understand better what it is like to go through the training" Carrington said and Jonathan nodded  
  
"Fair enough" Jonathan replied and they headed to a waiting room.  
  
4 people were sitting around a table as Carrington and Jonathan entered the room. 2 were male, 2 were female.   
  
"Hello everybody, I'm glad you could make it out of your busy schedules, with study and stuff" Carrington greeted them "Now you are all here because you have shown interest in becoming part of the team here at the Carrington Institute, I'd like you to meet our Top Agent Jonathan Dark" Carrington looked towards Jonathan. Top Agent? Jonathan thought to himself, wow.  
  
"Hi everybody" Jonathan waved and they all waved back some of them were nervous but one of the women was as calm as could be.  
  
"Now let's introduce everybody" Carrington sat down, "let's start from this side of the table and go round just your first name is fine so you all know each other"  
  
"I'm Ryan" one of the men said  
  
"Julie" One of the women said  
  
"Mark" another of the men added   
  
"Joanna" she said, all the others didn't seem to be in the room. Joanna's calm but friendly nature stuck out to Jonathan, Carrington too seemed to be impressed by her.  
  
"Excellent, now you'll all be given a quick test, don't panic just try to think clearly and you'll do fine" Carrington instructed them and handed them pens.   
  
Jonathan and Carrington stepped outside the room.  
  
"What do you think?" Carrington asked Jonathan as they looked through a computer screen which showed the room they were just in.  
  
"Joanna, she was so relaxed but also serious, the others looked like they were going to well…" Jonathan started  
  
"Piss themselves?" Carrington said slightly out of character for a moment.  
  
"Exactly, what do you have on Joanna?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Let's see, well she's doing very well in school, highly fit and she's already travelled a bit, exchange student in Australia for one year, Japan for another, by far the most impressive record out of this lot, it doesn't seem fair to compare her to them, I'm going to pull her aside" Carrington said and he entered the room. Jonathan watched through the camera.  
  
"Okay time's up" Carrington said and he took everybody's test and gave a quick scan of them, again Joanna was on top easily.   
  
"Joanna, come outside for a moment would you?" Carrington asked and Joanna stood up and walked outside with Carrington. "Ill be back in a minute" he called out to the others in the room and they nodded as he closed the door.  
  
"Right Joanna, we are already impressed with your records and current test results. So would you come back in 48 hours so we can test you a little more?" Carrington asked  
  
"Of course, thank you" Joanna said   
  
"Right see you tomorrow, oh and feel free to get something from the cafeteria before you leave, Jonathan show her there would you?" Carrington asked and Jonathan nodded  
  
Jonathan and Joanna walked to the cafeteria.  
  
"So what's it like working here?" Joanna asked  
  
"It's okay, but some of the weirdest stuff can happen, even during the training" Jonathan said   
  
"Such as?" Joanna asked   
  
"I can't tell you that, but you should do fine" Jonathan said as they headed into the cafeteria.  
  
"What are the people like here?" Joanna asked still keeping a serious manner  
  
"Let me show you" Jonathan smiled and he winked to Foster who was sitting down who pressed a button and a hose came out and sprayed Joanna in the face for a second.  
  
"Oh no, you failed part of your training" Jonathan laughed  
  
"Oh…" Joanna frowned   
  
"I'm only kidding, Joanna relax" Jonathan handed her a towel and Jo dried her face. Then however she saw her chance to get even, as Foster winked at Joanna she ducked and the same hose sprayed Jonathan. Joanna cracked and laughed a little bit, but then regained her serious nature.   
  
"I think you've made your point" Joanna said  
  
"Yes haven't I? It's a wonderful place" Jonathan said with a bit of sarcasm "Do your friends call you Jo? Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes, you can I guess… but I thought everybody would be so serious" Joanna said  
  
"When working whether it be here or on mission it is serious, but we need to be occasionally a little more relaxed otherwise you go insane" Jonathan explained and Joanna nodded understanding what he meant.   
  
"Anyway Jo, I've got to go on mission now. I hope I'll see you later, good luck if I don't" Jonathan waved to Joanna and she waved in return.  
  
Jonathan headed to the airport, and about an hour later he was on the plane. Carrington put him on first class, Jonathan wondered why but the answer was sitting next to him.   
  
"Hi there" Natasha said  
  
"Natasha what are you doing here?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Me? Haha, Helping you of course" Natasha laughed  
  
"You shouldn't be here" Jonathan replied  
  
"Actually I should be, I got Carrington's permission to help you" Natasha said   
  
"Well, I'm glad you are here" Jonathan sat back   
  
"You are?" Natasha asked  
  
"Yes, I… I…" Jonathan tried to find the words without hurting her  
  
"You what?" Natasha waited for the words she wanted to hear.   
  
"Kinda well… like you" Jonathan said, and regretted it as soon as he had said it that is until…  
  
"I kinda like you too" Natasha replied and Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief to himself  
  
Natasha then looked at Jonathan and Jonathan looked back and then they move in on each other ready to kiss. Jonathan thought no, this was going to fast but Natasha seemed to want to he didn't want to hurt her feelings.  
  
"Oh go on Johnny do it!" Grimshaw cheered looking through the computer screen again.   
  
"Yes, yes" Elvis said  
  
"Come on just do it already, we've been waiting 6 months" Foster chimed in…  
  
Jonathan and Natasha were about to kiss until Jonathan noticed something.  
  
"Wait what's that?" Jonathan asked  
  
"What's what?" Natasha replied slightly disappointed   
  
"This…" Jonathan pointed to the floor  
  
Jonathan looked a tiny red light from the floor of the plane and then stomped on it.  
  
"DAMN IT!" Foster shouted  
  
"Now we'll never know" Grimshaw moaned  
  
"So you shouldn't either, I wish you three would leave them alone" Carrington grumbled "The next human who I catch spying on them becomes the crash tackle Snowman for the snow simulation, got it?" Carrington finished and Grimshaw and Foster nervously nodded.   
  
Meanwhile back on the plane…  
  
"Silly people, good thing it was an Institute camera though" Natasha said   
  
"Yeah, now where were we" Jonathan asked, he wanted to go ahead with it now even though somebody at the Institute knew what was going on.  
  
"Right here" Natasha pulled Jonathan into a kiss on the lips…   
  
They landed, and they headed to a hotel room that Carrington booked in advance. They checked the room for bugs and other spying devices before Natasha started to give instructions.   
  
"Right Jonathan, I'll keep out of sight but I'll remain in radio contact. This makes a loud explosion like noise, if all goes well the guards will head to the location and the NSA will say they were testing some kind of weapon to everybody else" Natasha said and Jonathan accepted the device and pocketed it. "Here's the camspy again, and take this" Natasha gave Jonathan a strange black band.   
  
"What is it?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Put it on your left wrist, purely by reading your thoughts it will shoot a stun dart at any enemies in the room with great accuracy, however it can only hold 5 darts and they can't be reloaded at the moment, it's a work in progress" Natasha said   
  
"Thanks; see you later" Jonathan left the room  
  
"Bye!" Natasha waved  
  
Jonathan headed into the crowded city it was obvious which building Jonathan needed to get into since the entrance had a doorway with 5 armed guards around it. There was two ways around this Jonathan thought to himself, he could stun the guards with Natasha's wrist band or he could use the sound making device. The latter was safer and he didn't know what was inside. He headed around to the side of the building and attached the strange device in an alleyway. He headed back to where the guards were standing and set off the device. It worked perfectly the guards scattered and headed right to that location along with many civilians. He entered the building and looked once again for cameras.  
  
"Excellent Jonathan, our analysis of the base shows there are only 2 cameras, but their locations we aren't sure of, just be careful" Natasha radioed in   
  
"Received" Jonathan replied  
  
He looked at the map on the walls; it was predictably marked with where everything was.   
  
"Hey hands up!" A guard came behind Jonathan, but Jonathan stepped on his toe and hit him with the back of his first and followed by hitting him with his Magnum, knocking him out. He dragged him into the toilets, closed one of the cubicles and left him there. He headed to where it was marked meeting room but went one more floor up so he could spy on the meeting. Still no cameras as far as he could see, he used the Falcon 2 and attached a silencer and blasted the ventilation open. He placed a tracking device on the wall so he'd get 5 seconds warning before anybody came by. He sent the Camspy in and found the meeting room. Cassandra sitting at the head of the table, that had to be Trent Easton on her left and there were 2 other dataDyne executives and 2 NSA leaders sitting. Terrance was standing behind Cassandra's chair. All of them were dressed in typical business suits and ties, and Cassandra wore a blue dress with her famous necklace, Carrington seemed to think it had links to high security areas.   
  
"Now Cassandra about that new assault rifle is it finished?" One of the NSA leaders asked, maybe Carrington was wrong, this meeting may have been about weapons that dataDyne will supply to the NSA after all.  
  
"Yes, project Dragon is finished and you will have it by the beginning of next week" Cassandra said   
  
"Fantastic, so it has the proxy mine has promised?" The other leader asked  
  
"Of course, 30 rounds, 2 times zoom, decently accurate as well" Cassandra said and Trent nodded   
  
"You have done well for yourselves" Trent said to Cassandra and the executives sitting on the other side of the table  
  
"Thank you, now that will cost…" the dataDyne executive took out a pen and wrote a figure, Jonathan couldn't see it but it became obvious that the NSA leaders weren't happy.  
  
"What? The US Military paid half that to get their assault rifle" One of the NSA leaders complained   
  
"But it's nowhere near as good as this one" The other executive backed up  
  
"That's ridiculous…" The other NSA leader backed him up  
  
"Come on guys, Cassandra's my friend, she wouldn't rip us off" Trent tried to calm them down  
  
"Maybe she's trying to use that to her advantage" He replied  
  
"Perhaps you'd like a demonstration?" Terrance said with a bit of anger and took the rifle from the back of the room and fired it over the leaders heads with great accuracy taking the papers off the wall. He followed by pulling a switch throwing the rifle into the corner and then blasted it with his Magnum, where it exploded. Terrance folded his arms. "Convinced?" He said and the leaders only nodded.  
  
"Was that really necessary?" Trent asked  
  
"I think so" Terrance calmly adjusted his tie   
  
"Is that all?" Cassandra asked   
  
"Yes, thank you" One of the leaders said and the executives and the leaders got up  
  
"Let Terrance show you out" Cassandra said with a bit of an evil smile.   
  
"Oh no, we can find our own way out" The other leader still seemed frightened  
  
"Come on, I insist" Terrance said as they walked out the room leading the executives and the leaders out.  
  
Jonathan was about to put the camspy away until Trent said.  
  
"Is that man coming?" Trent asked  
  
"Of course, he was waiting for the official meeting to end" Cassandra replied and sure enough Mr. Blonde stepped in through the entrance.  
  
"That boy has temper doesn't he" Mr. Blonde said  
  
"Terrance?" Cassandra asked  
  
"Yes, I was almost impressed" Mr. Blonde laughed a bit  
  
"So what's our plan" Trent asked  
  
"We heard the British Prime Minister is the only person who knows the exact whereabouts of the ship but made to keep it a secret, so we plan to stun him, capture him and make him talk" Mr. Blonde said  
  
"That's easier said than done you know; how do you plan to even get in range?" Cassandra asked  
  
"We use our cloaking device, throw the stun grenade which knocks everybody except the person in the cloak out and capture him, it's simple"   
  
"Maybe, but don't count on holding him too long, Carrington will track you so fast it can make your head spin" Trent said   
  
"Carrington got lucky yesterday, so an agent sneaks in and takes a weapon from you and you basically screwed up on Victoria Island. His luck is bound to run out" Mr. Blonde said "Besides getting that ship back is everything, so we are willing to take risks but are you?" Mr. Blonde asked  
  
"Of course, we want our reward after all" Cassandra smiled and Trent smiled as well as any doubts they had vanished when they imagined themselves on top of the world with more money then it was humanly possible to count  
  
"Excellent, the British PM is doing some kind of celebration speech thing in Sydney, Australia in 5 days. I will need your back up though Cassandra of your troops should anything go wrong, who knows maybe we'll do more then that" Mr. Blonde laughed evilly "Understood?"   
  
"Yes, but how do you know he will definitely know the location of your ship?" Cassandra asked  
  
"Whether he knows or not, his capture will bring fear and confusion. That will be all" Mr. Blonde said and they all left the meeting room. He was calling the Camspy back in but just then he heard somebody, he went for his Magnum but by the time he had it hand there was another already to his head.   
  
"You just don't give up do you?" Terrance said as Jonathan swore in his mind, wondering why his tracking device didn't go off. Terrance then hit Jonathan hard with his Magnum knocking him out.   
  
"You are still weaker than I am" Terrance taunted and laughed even though Jon couldn't hear him. 


	5. Third mission part 2: Escape

A/N: Thanks again everybody for your reviews.   
  
"Wake up!" A voice demanded   
  
"Huh?" Jonathan replied, his neck felt really sore, he looked around and saw 4 guards around him with Trent Easton in front of him.   
  
"So this is Carrington's best?" Trent asked but Jonathan didn't reply  
  
"You have the Maian, where is he" Trent asked but again Jonathan didn't reply  
  
"Come on Dark, stop wasting my time, you know I can make you talk" Trent said but still no reply from Jonathan.   
  
"Fine, we'll do it your way. Trent turned and picked up a needle of some sort  
  
This is what Jonathan was waiting for. It was just enough time for Jonathan to activate the device he had on his wrist, it worked with perfection knocking out Trent and the four guards. He picked up his end of the radio, the Camspy, his DY357, and the keys from the floor that were held by one of the guards, he went to shoot Trent but figured that would draw unwanted attention so decided against it. Jonathan unlocked the door and it opened, a guard standing outside turned to face him only to be shot by Jonathan, but it wasn't enough to kill him as he staggered backwards. He fired a second time this time it killed him.   
  
"HUH?" A guard shouted and drew his rifle which was a K9 Villain, but was shot before he could react. Jonathan picked it up it was 25 rounds fired faster than a standard assault rifle with 2 times zoom but nothing more. He worked out where he was. This was the dataDyne building in Italy; Trent must have taken him here.   
  
He ran and came across various guards all holding the same rifle that he had previously taken, Jon was faster to react and fired killing two of the three and ducked behind a wall and then came back out and killed the last one.   
  
"Jon? Jon? Are you alright" Natasha's voice came through the radio.   
  
"I'm okay, if I can get out of here" Jonathan said firing a few more rounds off after he spotted another guard, before ducking behind the wall and reloading   
  
"I know where you are but they recognised me and fired so if I'm to come around you have to be ready for me" Natasha replied "I'm coming now go to the roof"   
  
"I'll do my best" Jon replied  
  
"While your there, Carrington told me to tell you to check there if the former leaders are there" Natasha said. She then described what the men looked like "I'll be there in 15 minutes" she finished  
  
"Understood" Jonathan replied  
  
Jonathan worked his way up the building, the lifts had been shut off so he fought his way up the building it was 7 floors, no where near as big as Lucerne Tower but it seemed it. Eventually the ammo for the K9 ran out, so was forced to use his Magnum. Looking outside it was night and according to the dates on the office desks it seemed to still be the same day. He checked every room and every office, but nobody to be found. He eventually came to the fourth floor, after fighting off the guards who were now hiding behind knocked over desks and firing but due to the power of his Magnum shot the desks were no barrier which made it rather easy.   
  
Jonathan entered a room on the fourth floor and found 2 dead bodies, both looked quite healthy, not like they had been tortured. One he recognised as Luke former head of dataDyne the other man he wasn't sure of but it seemed he fitted the description he was given by Natasha. It seemed they had only been killed recently and by a Magnum. Jonathan knew immediately who must still be in this very building, his chance to get even. The fifth floor was deserted except for one person looking outside a window he was dressed in dark blue usual uniform for high ranking dataDyne guards. It was an open room with a glass floor in the middle. Jonathan took his shot but he turned around and side stepped but it still knocked the pistol out of his hand and it got knocked out the window.   
  
"Not as accurate as you used to be, you disappoint me" Terrance said   
  
"Maybe I'll be more accurate this time" Jonathan fired again but Terrance disappeared  
  
"What the?" Jonathan said he was still on guard looking for Terrance reappear but when he did it was too late he kicked the Magnum out of Jonathan's hand and punched him in the face.   
  
"You like that?" Terrance laughed as he disappeared again but Jonathan went to tackle him as some strange device fell out from Terrance and smashed on the floor making him reappear. Terrance punched Jonathan again as he got up.  
  
"Not bad, for you" Terrance taunted  
  
Jonathan didn't reply as he squared off with Terrance. The two circled the glass floor waiting for someone to make the first move. Terrence grew impatient and made a running attack at Jon and jumped into the air and did a kick. Jon grabbed Terrence's foot and pulled him closer and threw him over his shoulder but Terrance landed on his feet and threw a quick a punch at Jon but again Jonathan defended this time hitting Terrance with a headbutt, slamming him into the wall. Jon went for a kick, however Terrence recovered just in time to avoid it and rammed his shoulder into Jonathan knocked him down.  
  
"I guess I really am better" Terrance taunted once more  
  
"If you fought as well as you run your mouth, you'd have a chance" Jonathan replied standing up  
  
Terrance got closer to Jonathan and again a staring contest begun, Jonathan went for a sweep, Terrance anticipated it and jumped but Jon's move was a fake out and he jabbed Terrance twice before kicking him in the knee then the head. Blood was coming from Terrance's mouth, he put his finger to it and looked at it.   
  
"This will not do" Terrance went for a grenade but when it dropped, Jon jumped backwards while Terrance climbed the stairs. But instead of exploding it just created smoke. Jonathan tried to reach for his Magnum in the corner but there were heavy boxes and he couldn't reach it. Once the smoke cleared Jonathan slowly went up the stairs looking for any sign of Terrance. He arrived on the sixth floor but no sign of him anywhere. Then he heard footsteps above him. On the glass above him was Terrance, he didn't see Jonathan. He looked below him and saw there was a glass floor like the floor below. Jonathan went up to the seventh floor carefully. When he got there it was more of a rooftop. He peeked to see if Terrance was carrying a weapon, none that he could see so he had time to react should he have one.   
  
"You disappoint me… I would have thought you would have used some cheap attack before I got here" Jonathan said  
  
"How's this?" Terrance pulled a dragon from behind but as he was doing that, Jonathan ran up to him and kicked out of his hands as it fell off the building. Terrance grabbed Jonathan and tried to throw him, Jon elbowed him to force him to break his hold and Terrance staggered backwards onto the railing. Jonathan tried to kick him but Terrance sidestepped and punched Jonathan in the mouth. Jonathan retreated over the glass floor and Terrance followed. Both men had a bit of blood coming from them, however Terrance was worse off. Terrance ran at Jon and then did a few punches which Jon ducked underneath, Terrance used a punch aimed downwards. Jon however grabbed his arm and tripped him. Terrance rolled backwards and stood up once more.  
  
"You've got a lot in you, I'll give you that" Jonathan said "what you would have been if you hadn't given into greed" Jonathan shook his head  
  
"This isn't over yet" Terrance spat aggressively  
  
Terrance charged at Jonathan and went into a large amount of attacks. Jonathan had no choice but to block. Terrance was so aggressive it didn't give Jon a chance to counter attack. He let the blows continue as he tried to defend, as Terrance continued to attack. Jonathan however saw an opportunity and he finally reacted and grabbed Terrance's fist and rammed him with his shoulder followed by an uppercut which sent Terrance to the floor. He rolled towards Jonathan and went for a sweep, Jonathan jumped but Terrance started his overly aggressive plan once more, Jonathan knew if he was to win he needed to use a blow that would finish the fight. As Terrance continued to use quick jabs and Jonathan continued to block, he tried to work out how to finish the fight. Then the answer came. Terrance jabbed once more but Jonathan sidestepped and pulled Terrance closer to him and then headbutted Terrance with all his strength and it knocked him onto the glass floor which shattered sending Terrance down 4 floors each glass floor shattering just as spectacularly as the last with glass all over him his body was a bloody mess, he looked down on his lifelessly body. He breathed taking the moment in, Terrance Dalkrad was no more.   
  
"That's what one would call using your head" Natasha came by in her hover car   
  
"That's what one would call a bad pun" Jonathan replied   
  
"I can leave you here if you like" Natasha smiled "but you are right… I knew a bad joke would get your attention" Natasha laughed  
  
"Sorry, it's just…" Jonathan started  
  
"Yeah I know " Natasha said  
  
"Not a Ferrari today?" Jonathan changed the subject looking at the Mercedes in midair  
  
"Nah, I've got 3 other cars. I like to test them all" Natasha replied  
  
They got back to the airport and headed directly back to the Institute by Carrington's private plane, on the plane was Daniel Carrington himself, eager to find out what exactly had happened.   
  
"Great work, but how'd you get captured in the first place?" Carrington asked Jonathan  
  
"Tracking device failed for some reason" Jonathan said  
  
"Yes, Dalkrad knew our technology so was able to counter it with his own unfortunately" Natasha said  
  
"So after the meeting with this Mr. Blonde, Cassandra and Trent, Terrance captured you, then you were taken to the dataDyne HQ in Italy" Carrington said  
  
"Correct sir" Jonathan replied  
  
"Tell me what happened from there" Carrington sat back on his chair as Jonathan told his story.  
  
"Well Trent tried to get information out of me, but I said nothing he asked about the Maian we have but I stunned him and the guards with Natasha's stunning device before he could pick up a strange needle thing. Oh yeah thanks Natasha" Jonathan said and Natasha smiled again   
  
"Yes, apparently that makes anybody tell the truth, I've heard of that thing" Carrington said "Anyway continue"   
  
"Then I escaped, killed two guards an alarm went off and I fought my way to the fifth floor where I shot Terrance but I only managed to knock his magnum from his hand. He went invisible and kicked my own Magnum away, but I tackled him and destroyed his strange device. We fought for a while then he drew a smoke grenade and I eventually chased him to the roof. He drew a gun but I was quick enough to knock it from his hands" Jonathan said   
  
"Interesting, go on" Carrington replied and Jonathan continued  
  
"I was eventually able to knock him through the glass centre and he fell to his death, finally" Jonathan breathed once more  
  
"That was a score you needed to settle, and I'm glad you did it. Terrance seemed to be able to organise dataDyne's troops more effectively then anybody else, with him gone it will be far easier for us" Carrington said and Jonathan nodded   
  
They arrived back at the Institute and it was about 9pm in the night, even though they had left Italy at 11pm due to the time differences. They sat in the cafeteria there wasn't anybody there but it wouldn't be long before there would be a few people who worked late taking a break.   
  
"Now as for this attack on the British PM, nobody is going to believe us that some invisible man will come and take him, so it's up to you two yet again to stop it" Carrington looked at both Natasha and Jonathan  
  
"Curiously sir, not that I mind but why are you continually putting us together, doesn't the work for Natasha build up here?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Jonathan, you both work well together. I didn't think it was a good idea that she go with you to Italy but after seeing how well she performed, I am convinced that should a mission require it she can be your support instead of me giving orders from here which increases the chance of them being intercepted which is something we simply can't afford" Carrington explained  
  
"And they work well together in more ways than one" Grimshaw entered the room  
  
"YOU!" Natasha shouted and went after him, Carrington made no effort to stop her as she drew a device and hit Grimshaw with it tripped him over wrapped him in a string and gave him a few shocks. Jonathan and Carrington watched with amusement.   
  
"Sir!? Aren't you going to stop the mindlllllllessssszzzzy vioooolence" Grimshaw said while Natasha pressed the switch every now and then shocking him.   
  
"No, not really you had it coming" Carrington replied with a bit of a laugh "Popcorn Jonathan?" Carrington pulled popcorn from a microwave and Jonathan accepted some and threw it into his mouth.   
  
"Okay, merzzzy, I'm soooorrrry" Grimshaw said and Natasha pulled the string back  
  
"Aww, I wanted to see what else it would do" Jonathan moaned  
  
"Hello everybody" Foster entered the room  
  
"Find out now… Natasha, he was involved to" Carrington said and Natasha drew the device and Foster ran but it was no use. This time Natasha picked up Foster from the ground and threw him around her head in a lot of circles.  
  
"Arggggghhhhhhh… last … time… I listen… to you… Grimshaw" Foster voice echoed as he was circled around the room.   
  
"How does she do that?" Jonathan asked  
  
"It uses anti gravity in the strings to lift the victim up and basically she can do what she wants with him" Carrington explained "but that's enough put him down" Carrington said and Natasha dropped Foster immediately. He landed with a thud. He walked around the room very dizzy and collapsed on a nearby chair.   
  
"Anyway back to the serious issues guys, the British PM" Carrington said "What Mr. Blonde said is correct, he'll be in Sydney, Australia in 5 days so you two are naturally going to stop the attack from happening. I'll plan this out and give you both information that you need" Carrington said and Jonathan and Natasha nodded  
  
"Meanwhile you two enjoy yourselves" Carrington gave a slight chuckle "Take tomorrow off, but come back the day after so you can help with some more tests" Carrington said  
  
"Thank you sir" Natasha said  
  
"Your welcome, and you won't have those goons spying on you either, I'll personally make sure of that, if I catch them they will become live targets for the firing range. Oh yes, Jonathan did you get that Dragon weapon Natasha talked about?" Carrington asked  
  
"No, sorry sir I did not" Jonathan replied  
  
"But I did" Natasha said "I left it in the car, I'll go get it" Natasha came back within a minute.   
  
"Foster if you aren't too dizzy check this out" Carrington called Foster over who walked over to Carrington slightly wobbling every now and then.   
  
"Hmm… very interesting looking weapon, this must have cost the NSA an arm and a leg" Foster said examining it  
  
"Yeah they didn't seem happy when Cassandra showed them the price did they?" Carrington said  
  
"No, Terrance had to convince them with a live test with them as the targets" Jonathan added   
  
"May I see please?" Foster asked and Carrington showed him the part where Terrance fired the weapon. Foster seemed amazed.  
  
"This weapon is incredible, it not only is better than any assault rifle out at the moment, but can self destruct. Remarkable" Foster commented "We must counter with our own assault rifle"   
  
"You must be joking, our agents can't carry something like that on most missions" Carrington wondered if Foster was still a little too dizzy.  
  
"Perhaps not, but no doubt, some missions would call for it" Foster said and Carrington nodded  
  
"Well if you can keep work on the Laptop Gun 1.0, and this new assault rifle then by all means" Carrington said and Foster headed off to the firing range  
  
"Anyway you are free to leave if you like" Carrington said to Jonathan and Natasha  
  
"Good night sir" Jonathan replied  
  
Jonathan walked to the front door of the Carrington Institute. Natasha came by.  
  
"Mind if I drop you home?" Natasha asked  
  
"Err no thanks" Jonathan replied but looked outside and it was pouring with rain  
  
"Are you sure?" Natasha smiled   
  
"Well alright" Jonathan replied, the rain didn't matter to him but it was a good excuse to be with Natasha  
  
She turned the engine on and they drove off. 


	6. A day off the mission

A/N: What happened to everybody, I only got one loyal reviewer (and thanks again). I would have thought Terrance dying would have been the call for more? Don't fear the story won't get dull purely because he's not in it.  
  
Natasha parked just outside Jonathan's house.  
  
"Jonathan… if you want you could come to my place instead. It would be easier the next day" Natasha suggested.  
  
Jonathan thought about this, it did cross his mind that Natasha would ask this. In his mind he wanted to slow down, then again it was her that asked.   
  
"Sure, just let me get a few things" Jonathan said and Natasha nodded  
  
Jonathan put some of the stuff he carried on the mission in the safe. It looked out of place in his house. His house wasn't in bad condition but it wasn't a huge place, just a 2 bedroom single story house. He also got changed and headed back to the car again.   
  
"That didn't take long" Natasha said  
  
"Nah, I only needed to do a few quick things" Jonathan replied and Natasha drove off.  
  
It took around 20 minutes to get to Natasha's house. More like a mansion when Jonathan looked at it. Jonathan wondered how long she had been working; it could not have been more than 3 years.   
  
"My parents were quite wealthy; they allowed me to get a great education. However they split up, then later divorced, but both agreed to leave this place to me" Natasha said   
  
Jonathan wasn't sure whether he should be happy or sad about this and Natasha saw through it.  
  
"Yes, I was sad at first but I learned to live with it" Natasha said and Jon nodded  
  
They parked in the underground parking and took the lift to the bottom floor of the mansion. Her parents must have been loaded Jonathan thought to himself. The mansion was three stories; Jon could park his house about 20 times into it.   
  
"It's a bit big isn't it?" Jonathan asked  
  
"A little but I get used to it" Natasha said   
  
"Where shall I sleep" Jonathan asked  
  
"Anywhere you want" Natasha laughed as she replied  
  
"How many bedrooms you got?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Twelve" Natasha replied  
  
"Okay I'll have a look" Jonathan said and walked around Natasha's mansion but was too tired to decide. He picked the one nearest to Natasha's.   
  
He walked in and just lay on the bed. He put his finger to where blood was from his fight with Terrance.   
  
"That looks nasty" Natasha said   
  
"Yeah, but its well worth it" Jonathan replied  
  
"True. Anyway you okay?" Natasha asked at the door of the room  
  
"Fine, thanks" Jonathan replied  
  
"See you tomorrow then" Natasha said  
  
"Yeah, got anything planned?" Jonathan asked  
  
"No. Do you?" Natasha asked  
  
"No, but I'm sure we'll think of something" Jonathan said  
  
"Okay, good night" Natasha smiled and walked away  
  
"Good night" Jonathan replied   
  
  
  
He sat back and thought about his moments with Terrance during his time at the institute, the good, the bad and the day he betrayed him and now the day he got even, he relieved the final blow he gave to him sending him to his doom. Jonathan was exhausted and fell asleep without even pulling the covers over himself.   
  
The next morning Jonathan woke up. He looked out the window and saw the beautiful view outside the window. His window was overlooking water, and he knew why Natasha had the room next to him. It was something he could get used to waking up to. He heard a few shouts downstairs, it was only one person and it was Natasha. He got up and headed downstairs to where the shouts were coming from. Inside the room was a gym and Natasha was beating the stuffing out of a punching bag using various techniques, she seemed very good. She heard him enter.  
  
"Oh I hope I didn't wake you" Natasha said  
  
"Not at all" Jonathan replied "you fight?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes, black belt in…" Natasha started  
  
"Tae Kwon Do, correct?" Jonathan said and Natasha nodded  
  
"Very good… I looked up your file and found you are quite a fighter yourself" Natasha said  
  
"I have to be, otherwise Terrance would have been the one to kill me" Jonathan said, it did feel good having beaten him.   
  
"Yes, anyway I haven't eaten yet, and clearly neither have you" Natasha replied   
  
"No, you finished?" Jon asked  
  
"Yeah I was finishing up now" Natasha said and both of them headed to the kitchen.   
  
Both had basic cereal, nothing fancy, despite the view and the size of the kitchen.   
  
"So what shall we do?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Well…" Natasha started until the phone rang, Natasha walked to it  
  
"Hello?" Natasha answered. A picture came up in front of Natasha   
  
"Hello guys" Carrington said  
  
"Guys? What do you mean guys?" Natasha asked  
  
"Come now Natasha, I know Jon is with you" Carrington laughed  
  
"It wasn't that hard to guess, was it" Natasha replied   
  
"Bring him in" Carrington said   
  
"Jonathan, it's Mr. Carrington" Natasha called out  
  
"Comin'" Jonathan replied and thought his break had been cut short then again he had only been working 2 days and already had a break.   
  
"Don't worry guys; I'm not calling you in. Natasha and Jonathan, the Maians have told us when the war between them and the Skedar is over they will return the favour of letting Elvis come to our planet by letting two of our people go to their planet. Jonathan and Natasha, you are our natural choices" Carrington said  
  
"What about yourself?" Jonathan asked  
  
"I can't, I need to stay here, if I'm gone it's likely somebody is going to catch on" Carrington frowned "Thanks a lot sir" Natasha smiled  
  
"That's alright, but it's a while off yet and things may happen that will prevent it happening" Carrington said "So don't get your hopes up just yet, anyway see you later have a great day" Carrington finished and hung the line up.  
  
"Wow, I wonder what its like on the Maian planet" Natasha thought out loud.  
  
"Too bad we won't be able to show anyone not in the high ranks of the Institute" Jonathan laughed  
  
"True, ah well" Natasha said   
  
"Let's just take one step at a time, like decide what we are going to do today" Jonathan said   
  
"Okay… let's go up to the mountains, it should take us about an hour and a half to get there" Natasha suggested  
  
"Sounds good, I'll just my stuff from my place again" Jonathan said   
  
Natasha packed her stuff into her car and drove over to Jonathan's who quickly got out some clothes and stuffed them into a bag as well as his snowboard. As Natasha had predicted it took about an hour and a half to get to there. Snow had fallen last night. Jonathan and Natasha got out there stuff.  
  
"I'm glad you board as well" Jonathan said as Natasha flicked her board up into her hand with her foot.   
  
"Yeah me too" Natasha laughed as they headed to the mountains.   
  
Seeing it was a working day normally, it was fairly quiet up there. They spent most of the day boarding and sometimes skiing but Jonathan wasn't as good at skiing as he was boarding, but he could still do it. Most of the time they spent boarding, Jonathan enjoyed Natasha's company; it was nice to have her around. She didn't seem a person who knew how to have fun when Jonathan first knew her but he grew to like her and quickly learned how to make her laugh. He found it hard to take in that this was the same person who was famous for testing her new devices on people who failed to return the older ones. Just as Jonathan was thinking about it all, Natasha came and shoved him down to the ground.  
  
"What was that for?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Because I felt like it" Natasha replied  
  
"Well I guess I feel like this too" Jonathan pulled her leg in a sudden movement tripping her over  
  
"Ouch…" Natasha said sarcastically and sat herself next to Jonathan overlooking the sunset.   
  
Jonathan sighed "I wonder how Joanna will fare in the training"   
  
"What made you say that?" Natasha asked  
  
"I don't know really. She just seemed so uptight" Jonathan said  
  
"So did you. When I saw her it was like looking at you as a woman" Natasha laughed  
  
"Surely you must be kidding" Jonathan replied  
  
"Well as far as your behaviour goes, no" Natasha replied  
  
"Was I really that bad?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Took us a while to crack you, but yeah everybody will crack eventually, the sooner the better" Natasha said  
  
"I guess so, let's eat and head back" Jonathan suggested and Natasha got up and agreed  
  
They got up to the restaurant there and ate dinner with a fire and a great view. They had to head back so they could get some sleep and be at the Institute on time.   
  
"See you tomorrow then" Natasha said after dropping Jonathan off at his place  
  
"Yeah, thanks again for today it was great" Jonathan replied  
  
"Bye then" Natasha said  
  
"See you" Jonathan replied and gave her a quick kiss.  
  
After they broke away from each other, Jonathan waved and Natasha drove off. Jonathan went inside and got changed and put his stuff away. He headed to bed and this time pulled the sheets up and got in. He went to sleep fairly early knowing he had to be at the Institute the next day.   
  
When he woke up had a shower, changed and ate breakfast and got to the Institute and reported to Carrington's office, Joanna was already there.  
  
"Nice to see you again" Joanna smiled at him   
  
"Yes, thanks" Jonathan replied  
  
"Ah, nice to see you've got to know each other a bit" Carrington entered and greeted Joanna and Jonathan. "Anyway, now Jonathan, you'll take Jo to the mission simulator" Carrington said  
  
"Already?" Jonathan said slightly surprised  
  
"Why not, she's been in the firing range earlier today, did very well in Foster's tests. I'd personally like to see how she would do" Carrington replied "Don't worry, this won't count since we haven't trained you at all, it's just a quick test" Carrington assured Joanna and she nodded  
  
Jonathan, Joanna and Carrington walked to the mission simulator. A city building mission, similar to the one Jonathan did a few days ago at dataDyne.  
  
"Now during a mission you'll get advice, information from me usually, however in this exercise it will Jonathan and neither have you seen this before" Carrington instructed and Joanna nodded and accepted a Falcon 2 silenced from Jonathan.   
  
Jonathan sat behind a computer desk with radio in hand while Joanna was taken to another part of the Institute where the simulation would take place.  
  
"You here me Jo?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes" Joanna replied  
  
"Ready to begin?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes I am" Joanna replied  
  
"Good luck then" Jonathan said and the simulation started.   
  
Joanna looked around on top of a tall city building, she had collect documents from a safe, disable the security and get out. Jonathan couldn't help but be impressed by Carrington's simulation. Just then Jo shot down a simulate guard taking his weapon. She entered the next room and took out a camera but this drew attention from another guard which Jo also shot. She dropped into the room and looked around and found a strange computer, she went to see what it would do.  
  
"I wouldn't touch it Jo, it may set off alarms" Jonathan suggested and Jo drew her weapon to blast it  
  
"Don't do that either, that will definitely set them off" Jonathan said   
  
"What do you suggest then" Jo said   
  
"Try an ECM. It's a security computer, an ECM will jam it" Jonathan suggested  
  
"Understood" Joanna replied throwing her ECM mine onto it  
  
"Excellent Jonathan" Carrington said   
  
Joanna then went down one flight of stairs and looked around the corner, about 5 guards were there.  
  
"Don't go that way Jo, find a distraction and pick off the reminders" Jonathan said but it was too late, Joanna drew her pistol and fired it at the guards in the room taking out 3 before the remaining 2 turned to fire at her. Joanna ducked behind the wall, as one reloaded she jumped out and killed him while the other tried to shoot at her. She ducked behind a desk and shot him in the foot, then took advantage of his moment of weakness and finished him off. Carrington shook his head.  
  
"Well that's one way of doing it" Jonathan said outside his communication with Joanna  
  
"Too aggressive, we'll need to work on that. Normally she'd be dead, but she has a bit of a skill on her to get herself out of that one" Carrington said  
  
"I agree, but I guess it's her approach to go in and blast everything" Jonathan laughed a bit  
  
"That's how I lose agents more often then any other cause, however like we said we haven't trained her and she will probably changed her style when we are finished with her" Carrington said "You on the other hand were too passive, although this is more useful it can be difficult to train them to be aggressive when given the opportunity, but you worked out great" Carrington said  
  
"Thanks sir" Jonathan said as Joanna was at the computer coded safe and was thinking  
  
"Try the Uplink" Jonathan suggested and Jo used the Uplink and it opened. Jo was about to put her hand in  
  
"Wait Jo, look for tripwires inside the safe" Jonathan suggested and Jo did that but none where to be found and she took the documents out and closed the safe.  
  
"Okay Joanna, you are on your own from here, let's see if you can finish the mission" Carrington said  
  
"Received" Joanna replied slightly nervous, but regained herself quickly.   
  
Joanna used the lift to get to the bottom of the simulation building and ran down the nearby stairs on her way to the front door but it was blocked by 6 guards. It was a donut like room. Jo couldn't blast her way out of this one, she needed to think up a strategy. One held a DY357 Magnum the others CMP50s.   
  
"Got the solution Jon?" Carrington asked  
  
"Hmm… I think so… let's see what she does" Jonathan replied  
  
Joanna blasted 2 of the guards holding CMP50s with her own CMP50. The one with the Magnum raised it and fire it, and ordered 2 to chase her, as she ducked behind the wall and retreated as the two behind chased her and she fired as she retreated.   
  
"Freeze" The guy with the Magnum and the other guard with the CMP50 came around the other way trapping her. She had no choice but to surrender.   
  
"Hmm… she did very well I have to admit" Carrington commented "It takes months of training to get as far as she did"   
  
"Yes" Jonathan replied "But it seems to be her nature to blast everything, rather than think when given an opportunity"   
  
Joanna joined them slightly disappointed.  
  
"We were very impressed, Joanna, especially with no training" Carrington commented  
  
"But I failed" Joanna replied  
  
"You were actually supposed to fail, it's made for people with 6 months training" Carrington said  
  
"Oh I see, but was there a way out?" Joanna asked  
  
"Yes, Jonathan you said you knew?" Carrington said  
  
"Okay, you noticed the guy holding the Magnum?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes" Joanna replied  
  
"You weren't to know this, but high ranking people at dataDyne almost always carry a DY357 Magnum. You go for him first" Jonathan said  
  
"Ah I see, I didn't shoot him because he had a pistol to their automatic weapons" Joanna asked  
  
"He would be better trained and also if you killed him they would not be able to organise themselves without their leader. You would have got away with the tactic you attempted" Jonathan said  
  
"Full marks Jonathan, but of course you were at a slight disadvantage and I do understand you didn't know that high ranking dataDyne guards carry DY357's. You would be taught this in 6 months training and before you went on that mission, any information that I thought was a requirement for you to have, you would get it" Carrington said   
  
"So I did well?" Joanna asked  
  
"Exceptionally well, when you finish school up we will gladly train you" Carrington replied  
  
"Great. Thank you so much sir" Joanna said overjoyed   
  
"Our pleasure, anyway you can leave now or go have some lunch here" Carrington said  
  
"I might have lunch as well" Jonathan said  
  
"Alright, I'll come with you" Joanna replied  
  
The two went up to the cafeteria again, and pressed the buttons on Natasha's computer set up and what they asked for was ready within 5 minutes.   
  
"She's brilliant" Jonathan said  
  
"Who?" Joanna asked  
  
"Natasha, our lab technician, she made this" Jonathan replied  
  
"Oh, yes then she must be very intelligent, what else did she build?" Joanna asked  
  
"Basically everything you used on your mission and she assisted creating the simulator" Jonathan said  
  
"Wow" Joanna replied   
  
"Yeah wow indeed" Jonathan said  
  
They finished and Joanna headed back home, and Jonathan was called into Carrington's office for a briefing. He knew this would be the briefing he would get for his next mission, so was ready for it. When he walked in, Carrington's expression and what he said surprised Jonathan beyond belief. 


	7. Fourth Mission: Maian Breakthrough

A/N: Sorry I took so long to update. I did a major rewrite of another story.  
  
Jonathan stood in shock.  
  
"Elvis has been what?" He asked  
  
"Captured just now. Outside in the back. The Maians are going to be fuming" Carrington grumbled.   
  
Jonathan was not only surprised at the news but at Carrington. Jonathan had never seen him freak out like that much before. A message came up on the computer. It was from the Maians. Jonathan peered over Carrington's shoulder and read it.  
  
To Mr. Carrington,  
  
You are not the only one to have protectors abducted. While we are saddened by this you should not feel guilt. How we are going to retrieve our protectors we don't know, they have been taken to a planet which Maians can't breathe, we know they are still being kept alive but we have no way of retrieving them. I am very sorry to have to tell you this news.   
  
Maian leader   
  
Bea Tles   
  
Carrington sighed loudly. Then an idea crossed his mind. He started to type again.   
  
To Bea Tles,   
  
I have a strange idea that may help you, but if this is useless do not give it any regard at all. Could a human breath on this planet? If so I may be of assistance to you.  
  
Carrington waited for a response. About a minute later he got one.  
  
To Mr. Carrington,  
  
I am certain a human could breath. The air levels seem to meet the requirements. However to ask this of you would be too much. Having said that we are desperate and have no alternative. If you are willing to help a ship will be there in an hour Earth time.   
  
Carrington immediately turned to Jonathan. Before Carrington could open his mouth Jonathan jumped in with.  
  
"Okay I'll do it" Jonathan said   
  
"Good… Are you sure?" Carrington asked even though he knew what Jonathan's response would be.  
  
"Yes very sure" Jonathan replied  
  
"Fantastic, the Maians will probably brief you and we will be out of contact but you knew that didn't you?" Carrington said  
  
"Of course sir" Jonathan said   
  
Exactly on time a ship that was invisible to both humans and Earth radar. When it landed it became visible. A Maian stepped out.   
  
"Greetings Earth Warrior, I am Bea Tles" Bea Tles said to Jonathan. Jonathan got over the strangeness of the name quite some time ago.   
  
"Thank you, so you'll be briefing me?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes. Let's get on board. I don't know how much time we have" Bea Tles said getting into a large Maian ship.   
  
The craft went on Autopilot and travelled at incredible speed but to both Jonathan and Bea Tles it didn't appear to be moving.   
  
"This is the weapon you'll be using. This Skedar planet has no nights. The planet is still and does not revolve around its two suns nor does it rotate. This will be used to your advantage with this sun powered weapon. It only seems to work on your sun and those 2 suns but no others. It's a Maian secret weapon and we've been constructing it for sometime." Bea Tles explained to Jonathan while handing him a weapon. "It's called the CallistoNT. Either quick and accurate or slow but powerful the choice is yours. It needs to absorb power every 32 shots so be careful." Bea Tles said  
  
"Kind of like reloading?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Exactly" Bea Tles replied  
  
The craft stopped Bea Tles gave the final briefing. The planet was not very big in terms of comparing it to Earth. It was around a tenth of the size.   
  
"Your obvious objective is to recover our protectors. They are probably been kept captive in a Skedar space ship, since it's the only place they would be able to survive. Our technology is probably being researched be sure to retrieve it if possible but getting our protectors back is our first priority. An additional bonus is planting these explosives on a Skedar ship. They will destroy the entire planet which will naturally be a major blow to the Skedar. We may even get a ceasefire if this happens." Bea Tles said and Jonathan nodded   
  
The ship landed on the planet. Jonathan had a quick look around. It was grassy and peaceful with tress. This was not what Jonathan was expecting, and neither was Bea Tles.  
  
"This is highly unlike other Skedar planets… but we are definitely in the right place. Step over there so I can let you out" Bea Tles instructed   
  
Jonathan stepped on a platform taking the explosives, the Callisto and his Magnum. He didn't know what effect it would have on the Skedar but it was worth taking anyway.   
  
"Be careful. They are very powerful creatures in hand to hand combat, do not let them near you" Bea Tles gave his final instructions before letting Jonathan out putting him in the lower part of the Maian ship.   
  
He opened the door to let Jonathan out. He drew his Magnum and looked around. He spotted a Skedar and fired. It flinched slightly and ran after Jonathan. Jonathan fired once more killing him.  
  
"That was easy" Jonathan remarked. The place looked peaceful. It had a relaxing feel to it. It would be a shame to destroy it. However as he continued to walk the grass changed to rock and multiple Skedar appeared. It was time to use the new weapon. Jonathan drew it turned onto the slower fire mode and blasted away the 4 Skedar with ease, but when he did the rock began to crack and lava appeared.   
  
"What the?" Jonathan said in shock as the rock began to separate, it stopped and Jonathan saw a tall building raise from the ground.  
  
He jumped over the cracks and tried to make his way to the entrance. It was around the back and when he found it, it was predictably guarded by 4 Skedar each with a Mauler. He took cover behind a rock and fired at the Skedar killing two of them before the other two returned fire. Jonathan ducked underneath the rock leant out from the right side and killed one of the remaining Skedar before reloading and finishing the remaining guard. Jonathan entered the building and looked around. A lot of Skedar ships were here, chances are one of them had the Maian protectors. Two Skedar were talking but Jonathan couldn't understand what they were saying but Bea Tles could. Jonathan kept cover while Bea Tles gave the translation.  
  
"What about the Maians and technology what are we going to do with them?" One of them said according to Bea Tles  
  
"Sell them of course. At a price, one of their planets for their friends, if they refuse we take it anyway. 900 troops with the latest weapons will be enough to devastate the Maian army…this will win the war" Bea Tles was a bit slow to translate out of shock.   
  
"Yeah, those Maians will have to surrender once we have that planet" The Skedar were pointing over a map but Jonathan couldn't see it.   
  
Bea Tles thought for a moment.   
  
"Jonathan. The protectors and technology are on the same ship. I know which ship but getting to it without setting an alarm is a problem." Bea Tles said with a slight sigh.  
  
"Which one?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Okay, it's in the fifth row according to this, and it's the tenth ship right near the alarm conveniently" Bea Tles replied "I don't our chances of direct attack are too good"   
  
"It's a chance we are going to have to take" Jonathan said as he drew his Callisto and directly ran towards the ship forced the door open with his Callisto. This attracted attention and the two Skedar ran to the alarm but both were killed before they could reach it, however the alarm sounded anyway. He went inside the ship and saw about 10 Maians all tied up on the floor with a strange electric field. Most were knocked out.  
  
"Jonathan?" Elvis asked "use your Magnum" Elvis instructed as Jonathan did just that blasting the lock off Elvis hands. "I am so glad to see you"   
  
"Talk later. Can you pilot this thing?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Piece of cake" Elvis replied before the Skedar started surrounding the ship blasting it with Maulers  
  
"Uh oh" Jonathan said as he freed another Maian  
  
"Use those explosives… throw them out the back and attach them to the ships" Elvis instructed.   
  
Jonathan ran to the back and opened the door, he received a bit of fire but drew his Callisto and killed two of the Skedar and threw the explosives onto three separate ships before closing the door. He ran back to the front. He continued to free the Maians as the Skedar bashed on the door trying to get in.  
  
"Hey Elvis what's taking so long?" Jonathan asked  
  
"It won't start… stupid Skedar technology" Elvis bashed the controls uselessly.   
  
"Want me to get out and push" Jonathan said sarcastically as he shot his Magnum again unlocking another Maian.   
  
"Hey give me that" Elvis came back to the middle of the ship and Jon passed his Magnum  
  
Elvis fired it at the controls  
  
"What the hell are you doing?" Jonathan asked but Elvis ignored him pressing the controls and the ship began to start. "Well that's one way of doing it" Jonathan rolled his eyes  
  
"It was electronically locked. I couldn't start it. Thankfully Earth weapons work on Skedar locks unlike Maian ones" Elvis explained  
  
"Right" Jonathan replied releasing the remaining Maians.   
  
"Mission Success then?" Bea Tles came in over Jon's communicator  
  
"Yes" Jonathan said as the ship exited the planet   
  
"Excellent. I don't know how to thank you" Bea Tles said  
  
"I don't know either. For now, to the ceasefire" Jonathan said as he pressed the trigger and within a second the entire planet disappeared. It didn't explode it just disappeared.  
  
"What?" Jonathan said out of surprise  
  
"Hah. Our explosives don't actually explode, they just absorb anything in range and disappear" Bea Tles explained  
  
The ship then landed on a Maian planet with Bea Tles Maian ship. Cheering had already begun. The Maians and Jonathan stepped out of the Skedar ship. This planet too surprised Jonathan. It was a like a really big city, the air didn't seem polluted like cities on Earth, it was very clean. Jonathan also looked at the buildings that were far bigger then anything on Earth. The Maians must have been hundreds of years ahead of Earth in the technology race.   
  
"We understand you must return to Earth soon but do have a quick look around. Our planet is not much compared to yours but we would very much like to show you" Bea Tles said  
  
"Your planet is far greater than ours. These buildings are far taller, the air is so clean. It… words can not describe it" Jonathan said still looking around trying to take it all in.   
  
"That's good to hear but I know it's not true. Elvis is fascinated by your planet, it has a lot of water, something we barely have 1% of on most of our planets. It has different conditions, which is something no planet we've been to has, every other planet we know has the same conditions all the time" Bea Tles said as Jonathan sat a table where the other protectors sat at as well with Bea Tles at the head of the table.   
  
"It's a pity Carrington can't be here to see this" Jonathan said  
  
"Yes. But do not worry. Official negotiations between our leaders and your leaders will soon take place. Although we trust you and Carrington greatly, Carrington himself fears if other humans were to know of our existence it would be for the worse at this time. At least until official negotiations have taken place." Bea Tles said and Jonathan nodded as a strange small glass filled with a strange substance was placed in front of him. Elvis next to him immediately drunk a similar glass put in front of him.   
  
"Hmm… good. While Earth food is great it takes time to eat, this can be eaten in seconds" Elvis said  
  
"So I drink this?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes. It won't hurt you. Our research has proven that the structure of human organs and Maians are not far apart which basically means a Maian can survive in a human environment and vice versa." Elvis explained  
  
"Well here goes" Jonathan took the drink and swallowed it. It tasted like chicken. He was quite hungry before but now he was feeling better. Jonathan figured he would never understand Maian advancements in technology and not to think about it too much.   
  
Jonathan, Elvis and Bea Tles toured the planet. Celebrations were all over the city, messages were in written in the air in Maian and in English so Jonathan could understand it while he was here. They read. Humans actually exist. Bea Tles declared a new leader. Major Skedar stronghold destroyed by Human with numerous protectors and technology recovered. Ceasefire negotiations have begun. It all made Jonathan feel good, but he still felt sad that neither Natasha nor Carrington were around to share it with him. He knew how badly Carrington wanted to see what was before Jonathan's eyes. Various craft flying around, really tall buildings, the food. The list was endless. However soon it was time for Jonathan to leave. He headed on a Maian ship and Elvis went on it too, to continue his research on Earth.   
  
"Thank you so much again. I look forward to our next meeting" Bea Tles said and shook Jonathan's hand even though it was an Earth custom not a Maian one.   
  
"Me too. I really like it here. I could get used to living here" Jonathan gave a smile as the ship closed and Elvis took the controls and they headed back to Earth.   
  
On arriving at the Institute Elvis turned on the invisible mode on the Maian craft and landed. Natasha was waiting for Jonathan. She ran to him when the door opened. Elvis meanwhile went over to Grimshaw and Foster who were going to take Elvis to Carrington's villa. It was about 11 pm at night.  
  
"Oh are you alright?" Natasha asked   
  
"I'm fine. Never better" Jonathan replied   
  
"So you succeeded obviously?" Carrington asked  
  
"Yes sir. Celebrations are all over the Maian planet. Ceasefire negotiations have started" Jonathan said  
  
"What do you mean? You just recovered the protectors and technology didn't you?" Carrington asked  
  
"No sir. The planet I was on. I was instructed to destroy it and I did" Jonathan replied  
  
"No wonder… the Maians have been looking for a break through like that for the past 200 years. It must have been only a small planet to be destroyed though, but it must be a big deal for ceasefire negotiations. The Skedar swore to the Maians that they would never agree to ceasefire and would fight to the very end. I guess that was enough to scare them." Carrington said  
  
"Anyway sir, the Maian planet was good, I…" Jonathan started  
  
"What? You mean you went to the Maian planet too!?" Carrington asked   
  
"Yeah. That's where I saw celebrations and found out about the ceasefire negotiations" Jonathan said  
  
"Tell me what did you see?" Carrington said excitedly. It was like a kid in a candy store. Jonathan never knew Carrington to be like this.   
  
"Loads of stuff. Really tall buildings, drinks that had the same effect as eating a meal, loads of transport… oh it was really good" Jonathan said  
  
"Wow… I wish I had been there" Natasha said  
  
"Me too. Very much. I envy you Jonathan" Carrington said   
  
"Yeah I too wish you had been there. But back here what is happening with our next mission" Jonathan wanted to change the subject. He felt it was unfair Carrington couldn't visit the planet. It was Carrington who wanted it far more than he did.   
  
"Ah good. Mind on the job Jonathan. Okay anyway you and Natasha are going to head out to Australia tomorrow. It will take sometime for the Skedar to withdraw from here if they decide to agree to the ceasefire chances are that will be one of the Maian conditions of it." Carrington said  
  
"Then what?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Then the next day you are to go to the place where this meeting will take place. Natasha has been working on a scanner to see through Skedar cloaking devices which is finished is it?" Carrington looked towards Natasha and she nodded "You are to kill him. His cloak will turn off revealing him. After that it's a wait and see game. Chances are the Skedar and dataDyne will counterattack and Natasha will give you instructions. Understood?" Carrington said  
  
"Yes sir. That all?" Jonathan asked  
  
"I guess so. I understand you not wanting me to tell me much about the Maian planet but I can't help but be curious, however I guess you are right. It's better me not knowing too much as it will only want me to visit more." Carrington gave a slight moan "Anyway. Good night Jonathan" Carrington said dismissing Jonathan and Natasha  
  
Jonathan and Natasha walked to the exit of the Institute.   
  
"Good Night Natasha. I missed you a bit today" Jonathan said and Natasha giggled  
  
"Even with all your experiences you still missed me?" Natasha asked  
  
"Definitely" Jonathan replied "I wished you were there for it all"   
  
"Ah well. I'd invite you over but I'm actually not heading home, I have to go over to the Villa to make sure everything is secure. Anyway see you tomorrow" Natasha said   
  
"Bye" Jonathan replied as he headed home. 


	8. Fifth mission part 1: Protection

Jonathan let out a deep sigh. He wondered if he would ever get some time with Natasha, maybe tomorrow was his opportunity. He liked her… a lot, she was not only beautiful, intelligent and had a liking to hear and tell jokes but she was as sarcastic and as cynical as he was. While they had only been officially together for a few days, for weeks, months many signals were let out. She was especially kind to him during the device training, not that he needed her help he scored perfect there anyway, but she always asked him how he was going.   
  
"Hey dreamy eyes… what are you doing?" Foster asked   
  
"Err… well…" Jonathan replied. He hadn't taken two steps from the institute.   
  
"You're thinking about something… ooooh… right Natasha" Foster let out a slight chuckle  
  
"No, it was about the planet… it's fascinating" Jonathan replied but Foster wasn't fooled.  
  
"Come now, no matter how good that planet was, it wouldn't make a guy freeze like that. I'm sorry for spying on your before, it was I just had nothing better to do" Foster said  
  
"I think Natasha got her revenge. Also I knew that you had nothing better to do, spying on people was Grimshaw's latest craze. How do you think I knew about the camera?" Jonathan asked  
  
"That's true. So can I ask what's next for you two?" Foster asked  
  
"Well I guess so. I just…" Jonathan thought for a moment. It was really none of Foster's business. "I dunno, I just don't want to go too fast or too slow" Jonathan said. Foster laughed  
  
"Natasha seemed to want to go as fast as she can… Jonathan, you have to move fast or she will go" Foster said  
  
"Hmm… I guess you were there sort of, but at least you apologized for it, and you wouldn't have if Grimshaw didn't but why should I believe you?" Jonathan said  
  
"Err… I don't know. I could be wrong, but that's the impression I got from those two times I saw you both" Foster replied  
  
"Thanks, I think. I have to play this game my way" Jonathan said  
  
"Okay good luck. See you later" Foster walked away and headed back inside and headed to the hangar.   
  
Jonathan let out a deep sigh again. He wondered if Foster was right. Foster did know Natasha longer then he did. He headed home and went to straight to bed. The next morning he woke up and did the usual morning stuff and headed back to the Institute. Natasha was in the main foyer area.  
  
"Ready?" Natasha asked  
  
"Of course" Jonathan replied.   
  
"Elvis will be coming with us, but only because we fear certain complications may arise. It will be easier to have him nearby" Natasha explained as they walked down to the hangar and boarded Carrington's private plane. Elvis was already on board.  
  
"Alright but how are you going to get him to our hotel room though?" Jonathan asked  
  
"To work out how to penetrate the Skedar cloaking device, I had to make one myself with Elvis' help, however it can only be used by a Maian" Natasha said  
  
"Excellent, but Elvis will stay there of course won't he?" Jonathan asked   
  
"Yeah" Natasha replied  
  
The three landed in Sydney, Australia but it was about 5am the next day when they did because of the time difference.   
  
"Great. I forgot about time difference" Jonathan said  
  
"Well Carrington did say the day after you land. I think he assumed we would arrive now. Because 5 days from that day is not today, it's tomorrow." Natasha smiled  
  
"I see. Anyway let's get to our room" Jonathan said and Elvis triggered the cloaking device as they left the plane.   
  
They had no trouble checking in and they headed up to their room and Elvis must have followed the entire time as he appeared when they entered.   
  
"Hehe. So many did not see me" Elvis laughed  
  
"Keep it down. That voice is a little distinctive and weird for a human" Natasha said and Elvis nodded.   
  
"Well. It seems like we just slept doesn't it?" Jonathan said  
  
"I guess so. Elvis we are going to look around and do some research and stuff for the mission. Do you mind if you stay here?" Natasha asked  
  
"Of course not, I can look out the windows with the cloaking device. Views are good from here" Elvis said. He was right, their room had a good view of various things in the city.   
  
"Alright but be careful, I'll get some food for you to eat" Natasha said  
  
"I'll be careful. I don't want the Skedar taking me away again" Elvis replied.  
  
"See you later. Have fun I guess" Jonathan waved to Elvis  
  
"I will, I wonder what's on TV" Elvis jumped over the lounge chair and flicked on the TV and his eyes lit up with excitement.   
  
Natasha got some food for Elvis to eat through the day but she really just wanted time with Jonathan, there was little work to do on the actual mission since it was all done for them by reconnaissance, and the work they had to do they could do while walking around the city. They planned to look at the sun rise from that famous tall tower in Sydney.  
  
"Welcome to Centrepoint" one of the tour guides said "Want a guided tour?" She asked  
  
"No thanks, we'll manage" Jonathan politely replied. The girl just smiled as they went up the lift to the very top of the tower.  
  
Jonathan looked outside and saw the famous bridge. It was true to those postcards that you could buy on the bottom floor. They were the only people around. Jonathan wondered if he could have bought a postcard of the Maian city.   
  
"Isn't it great?" Natasha said as the sun begun to rise  
  
"Yeah" Jonathan said as he kissed her on the cheek. He pulled back and Natasha turned to him, who returned it. Then the kissed each other on the lips with their arms around each other for about 10 seconds. Jonathan noticed somebody and he patted Natasha on the shoulder and they pulled out but the man was paying no attention. Jonathan smirked a little and Natasha returned it before laughing.   
  
They continued to look around the city all through the day and had dinner while overlooking the harbour. Afterwards they went into the middle of a park and sat on a bench. Jonathan thought he may be moving too fast but he couldn't hold it any longer.  
  
"Natasha, I've got something I'd like to ask you. I know we haven't been going out that long, but we've been good friends for months. Should something happen to me tomorrow I would fell awful if I didn't ask you this" Natasha remained silent. Jonathan pulled out a box and opened it with a ring inside. He bought it while Natasha was looking at something else.   
  
"Will you marry me?" Jonathan asked. He was really nervous, even more nervous before his first mission.  
  
"What kind of question is that! Of course I will!" Natasha replied. "Took your sweet time" Natasha joked as she accepted the ring and put in on her finger.  
  
"Well… I thought you'd say no even now…" Jonathan said "It seemed too fast, but you never know what's going to happen"   
  
"Jonathan, don't talk that way, everything will be fine" Natasha said.   
  
"Thanks. I'm so glad I had the guts to ask you that" Jonathan smiled.  
  
"Me too. Anyway Elvis is probably bored out of his mind shall we go back?" Natasha asked  
  
"Yeah, thanks for saying Yes" Jonathan said  
  
"Thanks for asking" Natasha replied  
  
They headed back to the hotel. Elvis clearly wasn't bored as he watched the TV in excitement.  
  
"He is funny" Elvis said  
  
"Do you find everything wonderful here Elvis?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Pretty much. It can be so lifeless on our planets at times." Elvis replied  
  
Jonathan and Natasha headed to bed. Jonathan smiled to himself glad that he had the guts. Elvis went to sleep turning off the TV soon after.   
  
"Guys can you hear me? Guys? Jonathan? Natasha? Anybody?" Jonathan's communicator was going with a male voice. Jonathan rubbed his eyes and picked it up.  
  
"Hello?" He said through it trying to recover. It was 6am.   
  
"Jon, were you still asleep?" Carrington asked  
  
"To be honest sir. Yes" Jonathan replied  
  
"Alright. What time is it there?" Carrington asked  
  
"6am. What's up?" Jonathan said  
  
"You won't be alone today. I have dispatched another agent, he was already in Australia since he lives there. Weapon is Falcon 2 scope. I can't name them or give you a description for obvious reasons, but if something goes wrong, which it probably will he will contact you" Carrington said  
  
"Thanks. At first you didn't think something would go wrong, now you are almost certain of it. Did something happen I was unaware of?" Jonathan asked  
  
"The Skedar may want revenge against the human race because you prevented the most powerful Skedar ever attacks taking place. Instead of getting a major advantage over the Maians they were forced into offering a ceasefire. Anyway good luck, Carrington out" Carrington said and Jonathan put the communicator down and got up.   
  
Natasha too was woken up by Carrington, she and Elvis came in.  
  
"Good morning. What did Carrington have to say?" Natasha asked  
  
"Apparently there is another one of our agents around, all he could tell me was Falcon 2 scope is the weapon. Probably worried about interception issues." Jonathan said and Natasha nodded in agreement  
  
They both had showers and ate breakfast. They went over the plan one more time.  
  
"Jonathan just before 12 you are going to be above the ground floor in the building" Natasha said "These glasses will let you see various things, but most importantly it will let you see through a cloaking device, but make sure when you don't need them don't use them since it is more difficult to see" Natasha said and Jonathan nodded  
  
"After you succeed they are probably going to wonder why there is a dead guy standing in front of the British PM. I will be waiting on the ground floor, but if you exit from this side" Natasha pointed to a side on the map she had. "You can get in the car and we can get away and deal with what happens next" Natasha said   
  
"Okay, got it for the tenth time" Jonathan smiled   
  
They just sat in the hotel room and waited. At quarter to 12 it was time for Jonathan to leave.   
  
"See you later" Jonathan hugged Natasha and gave her a kiss  
  
"Yes I will" Natasha replied  
  
Jonathan took his equipment and went into position. It was raining but this didn't bother Jonathan much.   
  
"This is Jonathan. I'm in position" Jonathan said as he looked over from above. It was like a stage below him, but Jonathan was well and truly hidden but he could still clearly see what was going on.   
  
"I'm in position as well. Okay the PM has just walked in the building. It's up to you now Jon" Natasha said   
  
The Prime Minister shook hands with various people. Jonathan just watched it happen. They all moved into their positions and sat down, no sign of anybody yet.  
  
"And now for the Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Anthony Kensington" The announcer said and everybody clapped, as the Prime Minister stood up and headed to the front with the microphone.  
  
"My father once told me…" Mr. Kensington started but that's all Jonathan heard there was somebody in cloak. They stood out because of the red outline, Jonathan drew his Magnum as the intruder got closer and closer to the front desk and Mr. Kensington just did his speech unaware of what was going on. The intruder drew a strange looking grenade and he looked ready to pull the pin but Jonathan pulled the trigger and with perfect accuracy the bullet hit and everything went as planned.   
  
"OH my goodness!" The PM said witnessing as the intruder was made visible and appeared to drop dead out of nowhere.  
  
"What's happened?" One of the security shouted and then everybody saw a man with a strange grenade in hand and a gunshot wound.  
  
Jonathan meanwhile was running concentrating on his escape. He jumped from the building and into Natasha's car as she opened the roof quickly to let him in.  
  
"Success?" Natasha asked starting the engine.  
  
"Yeah. Now we just wait and see" Jonathan replied  
  
It didn't take long for something to happen. Security was running around everywhere trying to get people away from the building but then on Natasha's right a bunch of Skedar in human form started to attack with dataDyne assistance.  
  
"This isn't good Natasha what do we do?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Fight of course" Natasha said making a quick turn heading for a recently placed road block.  
  
Despite the security trying to stop Natasha she drove on anyway using whatever means she could to hit the enemy guards down. Various lasers, machine guns and Jonathan shot his Magnum outside the car trying to help. Soon they had a car behind them, it too fired weapons and Natasha tried to get away from the action to draw their opponent out of the action.  
  
"What are you doing?" Jonathan asked  
  
"We can't fight them with this guy behind, I've got a few tricks" Natasha said and pressed a trigger letting out some spikes but they were no good as the other car continued to trail them and it just floated over them.   
  
"Ah crap" Natasha said "Now I mean business" Natasha pressed another button and the car let out a few grenades from the back but again they were shot by the other cars machine guns before they could get anywhere near the opponent.  
  
"Damn he's good…" Natasha moaned "Now for the last resort" Natasha pressed a button releasing a slow homing rocket however their opponent had done the same.  
  
"Natasha it's going to hit! Let's get out!" Jonathan shouted   
  
"Damn ejector seat isn't working" Natasha fiddled with it  
  
"He's probably jammed it let's get out." Jonathan said and Natasha stopped the car   
  
She opened the door however the other guy had done the same as Jonathan and Natasha tried to get away from the doomed car. Jonathan ran and hid behind around the corner and the car exploded and the flames just missed him. He then noticed somebody was missing.  
  
"Natasha?" Jonathan said quietly. No response.  
  
"NATASHA!" Jonathan shouted. Still nothing.  
  
He turned around the corner drawing his weapon and he looked at the two burning wrecks. Natasha was knocked down a fair distance from the cars. He looked around for the man he was nowhere to be seen. He cautiously walked up to Natasha, she had her eyes closed he put his hand on her pulse … nothing.  
  
"Natasha…" Jonathan said kneeling over her still on the lookout for the other man… "No…" but then his weapon was kicked out of his hands.  
  
"Ah you have a girlfriend that's cute. Or should I say had" A man laughed it sounded familiar… too familar. Jonathan looked at him…and the DY357 Magnum that was drawn to his face. He had metal over the right side of his face with a blue eye. The rest of his face looked badly beaten, he wore a dark blue datadyne uniform. The hair… it was… but it couldn't be, he was dead…   
  
"You are speechless to see me alive again I see" Terrance said  
  
"You bastard… stop your lame crap and just shoot me" Jonathan said  
  
"Ah but don't you want to here my wonderful story about how the Skedar saved me and repaired my body from the damage you did. I want to pay back every blow" Terrance used his Magnum to hit Jonathan hard.  
  
"It's going to have to wait, you freak!" A voice was heard and bullets came Terrance's way but a red shield protected him for a moment before he ran off heading into the tower they were in yesterday.  
  
Jonathan looked to the new arrival. It was a man armed with a Falcon 2 scope. He had a white skin but it was fairly dark as well and he wore a blue T-shirt with black pants with black sneakers, he was slightly taller than Jonathan. His hair was short and black and was a bit wet from the rainwater.   
  
"You must be Jonathan… oh and that's Natasha… I'm sorry I was too late, is she…" The man looked to Natasha's body.   
  
"Yeah…" Jonathan replied. He couldn't believe she was dead.  
  
"Listen I can chase him if you want, but I think you want to do this. I'll take of things down here, take this radio" the man offered Jonathan a radio and he took it.  
  
"Yeah… this time I'll kill him for certain…" Jonathan said with anger.   
  
"Take this too… I stole it from one of those Skedar guys." The man offered Jonathan a strange device  
  
"What is it?" Jonathan asked  
  
"It's a shield, it takes a certain amount of damage before fading like the guy had" The man explained. It was then it occurred to Jonathan how unusual he looked for an institute agent, he looked younger then he was.   
  
"Who are you anyway, you seem too young to be an agent" Jonathan said  
  
"That's what everybody says, yeah I've just turned 19. Name's Sean Lomberson. We don't have much time" Sean said. Jonathan looked at Sean, then took another look at Natasha.  
  
"Sean? You copy?" A voice was heard from Sean's end of the radio it was Carrington.  
  
"Yeah I copy… I've met up with Jonathan. I was too late to save the woman though" Sean said with a bit of sadness.  
  
"Natasha is dead?" Carrington asked  
  
"Yeah… Jonathan is going to chase this Terrence guy who killed her. He looked like something you'd see out of a scary movie. Metal covering the right side of his face, his left side looked barely human" Sean said. There was silence at Carrington's end.  
  
"Leave Terrance to Jonathan. You better hurry back to the where the action is, as for you Jonathan good luck. Keep your mind focused if you can and when you kill him this time, make sure he's actually dead." Carrington said.   
  
"Will… do… sir" Jonathan mumbled, split between getting angry and upset. Jonathan picked up his Magnum and took one last look at Natasha.   
  
"Sean you better hurry, but keep your mind on the job and not your revenge" Carrington instructed  
  
"Thanks. I will do my best" Sean replied "Good luck Jonathan" Sean said as he loaded his Falcon 2 and ran.   
  
Jonathan ran the other way and headed into to the tower. 


	9. Fifth mission part 2: Another point of v...

A/N: This takes a while to get back to Jonathan but it does next chapter. I won't keep you guys waiting for too long.   
  
Sean ran back to where he was. He brushed his already wet hair as the water fell from it. Although he tried to keep his mind clear, Jonathan wasn't the only person seeking revenge.   
  
*Flashback a little over 9 years ago, year 2006, Sydney Australia.   
  
An 9 year old Sean was awake in the middle of the night, he heard somebody at the front door. He walked to the door to his bedroom and opened it quietly. It was his parents.  
  
"Why did Carrington want to hide this here?" his mother asked  
  
"Seems to be one of the last places they would look. Wouldn't you think?" His father replied  
  
"I guess so. Anyway let's be quiet in opening the safe, Sean's probably asleep" The mother pressed a few buttons on a safe of some kind. It opened and whatever it was the woman put it in.   
  
Days went by and Sean never worked out where this strange safe was. However about a month later, Sean was awoken by gun shots from weird sounding weapons.   
  
"Lomberson to Carrington… under attack need assistance" his mother shouted through the radio. She was looking through some strange hole in Sean's room.   
  
"Mum what's going on…?" Sean asked. Too young to really understand what was happening around him.   
  
"Don't worry it will be okay… just stay here promise me that." His mother took a gun.  
  
"Mum… what are you doing?" Sean asked. He had no idea his parents were both agents who worked at the Carrington institute.  
  
"Please stay here. Your father and I will be back soon" Sean's mother went out of the room  
  
"MUM! Stay" Sean shouted but it was useless.  
  
Sean heard more gun fire from both laser like weapons and then a regular pistol. It seemed to go like that for a long time but eventually it stopped. Then voices were heard. He looked through the peep hole. Two men in white coats had his parents kneeling both with strange weapons pointed at them.   
  
"We know it's here, stop your foolish act and tell us what we want to know" One of the men said. It sounded dark, uncaring, cold.  
  
"You know we will never tell" His father replied  
  
"Shall we kill them?" Another of the voices said  
  
The man thought for a moment.   
  
"No, let's see how they respond Skedar like torture" The man rubbed his hands and smiled.  
  
The second man left and returned. He held a really strange looking chair.   
  
"Let's see how well you can keep your mouth shut now" The first man said but then some cars pulled up outside and gunshots started again. The two men fired back.  
  
"This is no good, we must surrender" The second man hide underneath a lounge chair and fired a few shots.  
  
"Never…" The first man changed into a strange dinosaur looking thing and then headed for his parents. He then slashed at them and bitted them multiple times, with loud screams. Sean covered his eyes not wanting to watch. He then cried quietly to himself but then the firing stopped and new voices were heard.  
  
"Both Lomberson's dead?" A voice asked  
  
"Regrettably we weren't quick enough, the other one escaped before we could kill him" another replied "Check on their son. I feel so responsible for this" The man said sadly as a few footsteps were heard and then the door was opened and four men came and made sure Sean was okay, he was upset but was uninjured.   
  
"Sean. I guess by now you have worked out your parents weren't telling you the entire truth about their jobs. They were protecting something here, it is unfortunate they had to die protecting it but they still succeeded." The man said "My name is Daniel Carrington and your parents worked for me as agents who did various tasks to help keep peace and other stuff" Carrington explained.   
  
Sean didn't reply. He looked at his parents ripped apart bodies. Another man found the safe which was hidden underneath the lounge chair and then underneath some carpet and headed back outside.   
  
"It is very sad you had to see that, however now you have a choice. Even though you are young I trust you will be able to make this choice. You can stay here and live here, or you can come back with us. Take as long as you…" Carrington started  
  
"I want to go with you… my parents would have wanted that… it will be the only way I will truly get to know the people they were…" Sean said with a bit of tears. Carrington patted him on the shoulder and took him into the car.  
  
*5 years after  
  
Sean went to school near the Institute and lived at Carrington's villa. Although Carrington wasn't often around a few people made sure that Sean was okay. He was one of the few people who was allowed to know what was going on between the Skedar and the Maians. Sean spent a lot of time at the Institute and through picking it up from others and watching as agents took various tests he quickly caught on, and started the Institute training. He wanted to find out for himself exactly how his parents lived.   
  
"Sean, are you sure you can do this. Balancing school and your training will not be easy" Carrington said. "In fact that's why I refuse to train people your age"  
  
"Yeah I know but I'm positive, I can do this. I spend more time here then at home anyway" Sean replied and Carrington gave a smile.  
  
"That's true. Listen, I said a few years ago that when you were older I would tell you exactly what your parents were protecting. That time has come, and I am giving what they were protecting to you" Carrington said as he headed over to a safe in his office which contained only two items. He opened it and picked one of the two items up and handed it to Sean. It was a Falcon 2 scope.  
  
"This weapon is what they were protecting. It has accuracy that is unnatural for any other pistol, as it has Maian technology installed in it, this is why the Skedar attacked your home all those years ago" Carrington explained and Sean nodded.  
  
"Thank you. On any mission I go this weapon will come, always…" Sean said accepting it from Carrington.  
  
*Present  
  
Sean had completed his training with 96% an A grade, and his first mission was to back up Jonathan and Natasha should anything go wrong. He tried to keep Carrington's advice in mind to concentrate on the mission and not go chasing after Skedar unless the mission required it. The Skedar were going into various buildings and the security tried to chase them. Sean walked onwards he came to a road block with a guard.  
  
"Hey kid… this isn't safe, we don't need another hostage leave for your own good" The guard shouted  
  
"Agent Sean Lomberson, move aside" Sean showed his identity, it wasn't often used as most would expect an agent from a more well known group and Carrington's missions rarely involved the use of security. Carrington liked to keep missions as secret as possible but in this case there was no way around it.   
  
"You're the agent we were told to expect? You're a bit young aren't you?" The guard replied. Sean rolled his eyes he was sick of hearing that.   
  
"What's the situation?" Sean asked ignoring him, however another man who was listening came to Sean, he offered his hand to Sean and Sean took it.  
  
"I'm Phillip Mensa, chief of security. The enemy have taken people into various buildings, some guy with a metal face on his right side seemed to be commanding them until he got into a car and chased after somebody else who was helping before and got the enemy to scatter" Phillip said "After that they started going into buildings. I don't know how many hostages were taken since a lot of people were evacuated. Worst of all however the British Prime Minister was captured and taken to that train station by two men, we sent four after him but they aren't responding on their radios. I don't know what they plan to do but we are running out of ideas" Phillip shook his head.   
  
"I guess I'll have to go in…" Sean took his Falcon 2 out and headed off.  
  
"Not alone… take some people with you" Phillip said  
  
"No… try to free the hostages, trust me it's easier alone" Sean said and Phillip shook his head and sighed.  
  
"Very well… good luck then" Phillip said   
  
Sean headed across the street and entered the train station, cautious of any movement, as walked down a long tunnel. He doubted whether the Prime Minster was still alive, but he had to do what he could. Soon he came to the end of a passageway and heard talking. Sean looked around the corner and they came into view there were 4 dead guards on the ground as well as 2 men in white coats, one with a Mauler aimed at somebody Sean couldn't see and the other walking in front of him menacingly while interrogating him.  
  
"Now tell us Prime Minster… where is the ship! You must know! Tell us or we will make you!" The Skedar's voice echoed through the tunnel.   
  
"I do not know what you are talking about…" The Prime Minster nervously replied.   
  
So at least he was still alive, Sean thought to himself.   
  
"Why are you so foolish? Stun him, we will interrogate him later" The man said. That cold voice it sounded familiar… but it couldn't be. However the man with the Mauler went to draw a strange grenade Sean knew he had to act now. He drew his Falcon and aimed right at the man holding the grenade and fired.   
  
"Arggh!" The man shouted as the bullet hit him and he dropped to the floor, the other man turned and the Prime Minister took advantage of the distraction and ran in Sean's direction.   
  
"Keep going I'll deal with him" Sean said and the Prime Minister nodded as he kept running down the tunnel.  
  
The man in the white coat looked stared at him, he drew his weapon a red barrier flickered around him. Sean activated his own shield and pointed his Falcon at his opponent.   
  
"Could it be… that child… the one who was spying on us through that hole? It has to be, that weapon… the thing we were after in the first place as proof of the Maians contact with Earth. So did you like what I did to your parents, don't worry you too will be able to experience the wonderful feeling of being defeated by a creature of a superior race." The man said with an evil smile  
  
"Superior race? I think not… you Skedar are all talk… you swore to the Maians you'd never back down, and what did your supposedly superior race do, you start talks to a ceasefire purely because you were afraid of losing the war" Sean reloaded his Falcon 2.  
  
"So you know your politics, but what you don't know is the ceasefire isn't real. We will continue with lesser activities with quick weak but annoying attacks, we know the Maians only fight purely to keep peace" The man said. His expression and voice never seemed to change it was always in the same cold tone.   
  
"That sounds pretty cowardly for a race that treats war as a religion. What would your Gods think, then again you shouldn't be too worried they aren't real anyway" Sean taunted. He just knew that his opponent would no doubt be a dangerous enemy and getting angry may not be a wise move but it may make him more careless in his attacks. The man looked at Sean; he badly underestimated his knowledge about Skedar and Maian affairs, it was infuriating having an inferior human taunt him like that, it was time to make him pay.   
  
"Enough talk! It is time for you to die!" The man shouted and transformed into a Skedar.   
  
Sean started to run backwards and fired and the shield predictably reflected the shots, the Skedar returned fire but missed. The Skedar came running and tried to slash Sean but he rolled out the way. The Skedar fired its Mauler and Sean returned the fire. The Skedar suddenly drew a strange weapon and a rocket was heading in Sean's direction, he dived down the stairs to get away from it as it exploded into the wall. The Skedar came running and Sean reloaded his Falcon 2 and took a few shots and ran and the Skedar tried to fire over the stair railing but he missed. The Skedar shield was a yellow colour and he came down the stairs and fired twice but there was nobody there he started to reload and Sean came from behind the wall and shot him 8 times turning the shield to a weak green then a black colour and the Skedar fell down. Sean took the opportunity to reload and fired multiple times again but the shield didn't seem to wear off and suddenly the Skedar stood up again and the shield was back to a dark red.  
  
"What the hell?" Sean shouted as the Skedar just growled quietly and fired another rocket but missed again. One of the monitors crashed down to the ground.   
  
Sean knew he couldn't kill him purely by shooting him he had to think of another way to damage him. He looked up and saw a metal spike monument like thing in the roof, maybe just maybe he thought. However he didn't have much time to think it through as the Skedar began to fire its Mauler yet again as it hit Sean's shield turning it to yellow. Sean fired back and turned the Skedar's own shield to yellow it happened a lot faster this time.   
  
Sean headed back to where the fight started by climbing another lot of stairs and drew the Skedar's attention by firing at him and turning the shield to green. He looked up and tried to lure the Skedar to underneath the monument. The Skedar came running and tried to slash Sean again and it landed hitting him on the forehead. The Skedar growled again but Sean fired forcing the Skedar to drop down, he was in exactly the right position. Sean fired at the monument getting it to drop and it nailed the Skedar right on the head penetrating the shield. Sean breathed a sigh of relief as the Skedar made a few growling noises before dropping both its weapons and collapsing on the ground dead.   
  
"Agent Lomberson, do you copy? Sean? SEAN!? Please reply!" Carrington's voice was heard from what must be his communicator it was on the lower level, he must have dropped it when he went down the stairs. He walked to it and picked it up.  
  
"Yeah I'm here, I just had a had an encounter with a Skedar" Sean spoke into the communicator  
  
"Are you alright?" Carrington asked  
  
"Yeah… I think so… one of them had this weird shielding system, it wouldn't wear off I had to kill it using another method" Sean said, Carrington thought for a moment  
  
"Go get Elvis, he can check it out. He's in the same hotel Jonathan is staying at, he's got a cloaking device so you don't have to worry about him being seen" Carrington said   
  
"Understood" Sean replied   
  
He walked back through the tunnel and noticed that his forehead was bleeding, probably from when the Skedar hit him, the shield didn't protect against hand to hand blows yet. It wasn't too bad it could have been a lot worse. Sean came from the station and the Prime Minister was with a lot of security including Phillip.  
  
"Thank you for saving my life, oh are you okay?" The Prime Minister looked at Sean's forehead  
  
"I'm fine thanks. I'll be back in a minute, I've got to make some checks on the people in there, make sure nobody goes in" Sean said  
  
"Okay, will do" Phillip said as the security put more road blocks around.  
  
Sean ignored the rainfall and ran into to the hotel and knocked on the door of the room Carrington told him.  
  
"Elvis its Sean let me in" Sean said and Elvis opened the door  
  
"Sean? Is it really you?" Elvis asked  
  
"Yeah it's me but we can talk later, I need you to look at a few things down there" Sean said and Elvis nodded and put on the cloaking device and became invisible and closed the door.  
  
They headed back and entered the station again. As they went down the tunnel Elvis turned off the cloaking device.  
  
"So what is it?" Elvis asked  
  
"Two Skedar are dead" Sean started "One is the human form the other is not… he had this strange shield system that would regenerate itself" Sean explained   
  
"Hmm… show me" Elvis said.   
  
Sean showed Elvis the Skedar he had killed before. Elvis examined him he was slightly larger then a usual Skedar but he definitely had that strange shield system.  
  
"Hmm… it seems that this is the Skedar prince, or one of them. He has shielding systems like the King that we haven't worked out how to penetrate but it seems that you've discovered a way of killing them" Elvis said"  
  
"Yeah supposing you have a sharp object above them and you get them to be underneath it" Sean said  
  
"Still it's far better then no way at all. According to our sources it seems this particular Skedar was the leader of things here, or joint leader as the is another Skedar that spends a lot of time in the human form who was present at both meetings Jonathan recorded" Elvis explained "If we could kill the Skedar king and then ambush their secret planet when we find it, we could win the war, however that's a real long shot, but it seems that would be the only way of ending it and finally getting true peace" Elvis said.   
  
"Do you think the fact that they lost one of their leaders will be enough to get them to leave Earth?" Sean asked  
  
"Not likely. It is a condition of the ceasefire but we won't be able to hold the Skedar to it, I've got a feeling the ceasefire isn't going to be as peaceful as it should be" Elvis said  
  
"He did mention something about doing lesser activities, he also said you only fight to keep the peace" Sean said  
  
"Not surprising, but I don't think this is the best place or time to discuss this. How are Jonathan and Natasha doing?" Elvis asked  
  
"Natasha is dead… Jonathan is chasing after this Terrence guy" Sean explained  
  
"Oh no… that's awful" Elvis said   
  
"Yeah we can talk later after this over. You better get back, and how are we going to hide the prince? Got a Maian grenade?" Sean asked  
  
"Yup" Elvis threw a blue grenade at the Skedar who disappeared after 5 seconds.   
  
"Magic that is" Sean said   
  
"Yeah, less messy then Skedar or Earth versions, but not as effective" Elvis said  
  
"Should we hide the other Skedar as well?" Sean asked  
  
"Nah, nobody will be able to tell the difference" Elvis said and Sean nodded  
  
Elvis turned the cloak back on as they headed back. Elvis went back to the hotel room and Sean talked to Phillip.  
  
"Do your checks?" Phillip asked  
  
"Yes, its okay now" Sean said and the road blocks were removed "How's the hostage situation going?" Sean asked  
  
"Good, we've lost a few men but I think we've saved most of them from those guys. However there were a few in the tower but they are slowly coming out, maybe they are getting released" Phillip said  
  
"There is somebody in the tower, he's probably doing it" Sean said   
  
"Another agent?" Phillip asked  
  
"Yes" Sean said  
  
"Sir, majority of hostages have been saved although no enemies were captured. They all seemed to rather die" One of the guards told Phillip  
  
"Interesting, what puts that kind of fear into them?" Phillip looked to Sean  
  
"No idea…" Sean replied but in truth he knew that if a Skedar was captured they would be immediately killed if they escaped or were released and returned. 


	10. Fifth mission part 3: Rescue and revenge

Thanks again for your reviews…a few notes about the story with your reviews and what I was thinking as I wrote parts of this fic. When I finish this story I'll immediately start on another and I know you'll like it. This story will have 9 missions but I'm not sure how many chapters that will be and at the end I may consider extra missions with other characters like the actual game does, along with profiles on each character not that's really necessary, but just for complete finish.   
  
Spider-bear: Yeah Terrence does look a bit like Kano now but that really wasn't my intention… but it is a bit what's he's like I suppose.   
  
Cristalina: Sorry I had to kill Natasha… in previous chapters I tried to make it seem that she was not the device lab technician in Perfect Dark.   
  
Now the story continues…  
  
Jonathan headed into the tower. A few dataDyne troops greeted him with gun fire but Jonathan shot them down rather easily. He then noticed a few hostages with two guards by them and Jonathan shot them both and the hostages ran out.   
  
"Thank you so much" One of them said.   
  
"How many groups are there?" Jonathan asked. He knew he would have to try save the hostages before going after Terrence.   
  
"2 other groups. From what I heard both are on this floor" the guy replied  
  
Jonathan ran off and found another group fairly quickly again covered by two guards but both of them saw him and shot weakening his shield a little but they didn't try to kill the hostages but Jonathan was more aggressive then he usually was and took them down. The second group ran as well and it didn't take Jonathan long to find the third group only covered by one guard who was easily shot and taken down. The hostages gave their thanks, Jonathan only nodded. No sign of Terrence, chances are he was hiding on the top floor.   
  
He headed to the lift and thought for a moment… maybe that was what Terrence wanted. On the other hand there was the stairs but climbing 60 plus floors would be very exhausting and he would be in no condition to fight. He didn't want to think about it so he headed into the lift using a scanning device to check for tripwires, none. The lift got to the top fairly fast and Jonathan exited looking around, and there he was. Jonathan drew his Magnum.  
  
"Well I see your skills are still strong" Terrance said  
  
Jonathan didn't reply as fired the Magnum but Terrance dodged the shot.  
  
"No chat? Ah well… I guess your anger makes it easier to kill you" Terrance said and he fired a shot back and Jonathan went backwards around the top floor of the circular tower but Terrance turned around and fired once more and it landed on Jonathan's shield.   
  
"Come on don't take too long to die…" Terrance said mockingly  
  
Jonathan fired and missed as Terrance rolled but then Jonathan did something that Terrence would never have expected. Jonathan in a rage ran up to Terrance and kicked his weapon out of his hands as it smashed the glass and fell out the window.   
  
"Get on the ground NOW!" Jonathan shouted pointed his Magnum at close range to Terrence's head.   
  
This time it was Terrence's turn to stay silent. Jonathan was about to pull the trigger to kill him when a thought crossed his mind.  
  
"You can kill me but our plan will succeed" Terrance said after a bit of silence   
  
"If trash talking was a sport you'd win a gold medal" Jonathan replied as he hit Terrance with the Magnum hard on the non metal side of his face. He felt to the ground and held his face and Jonathan kicked him to turn him over. He then grabbed him and walked him over to the window.   
  
"This time I will actually make sure you are dead" Jonathan said as he fired his Magnum at close range to Terrance's head letting him go as he fell out the window.  
  
Jonathan gave another deep sigh, he'd have actually go down and check he is dead, however just as he was about to do so his radio came in.  
  
"Jonathan? From our recent reconnaissance there is a bomb in here. A bomb of the Skedar variant, Elvis is with Sean at the moment but see if you can find it. It should be on the top levels as the explosion is aimed downwards for maximum effect the idea is to get this building and buildings around to topple creating an almost domino like effect" Carrington said   
  
"Okay, but how do I defuse it?" Jonathan asked   
  
"Find it first, then I'll let Elvis know. I don't actually know" Carrington said  
  
Jonathan looked underneath tables and chairs really fast but it didn't take him long to hear the slight beeping sound. He lifted up the table and sure enough the bomb was there.  
  
"Found it sir… according this it has 4 minutes" Jonathan said  
  
"I'll try contact Elvis" Carrington said   
  
Jonathan waited about 5 seconds  
  
"Hey Jonathan" Elvis said  
  
"Hi, got any ideas how to defuse this Skedar bomb?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Alright, simply unscrew the top and then shoot inside it, that's all there is to it" Elvis said  
  
"Are you nuts!" Jonathan said out of instinct  
  
"Trust me, it took us years to work out how to defuse Skedar bombs" Elvis replied  
  
Jonathan did as he was told, he closed his eyes before pulling the trigger and he did and the timer stopped.  
  
"Phew… I'm glad that worked" Jonathan said then gave a deep sigh.  
  
"Yes…" Elvis picked up that Jonathan was upset about losing Natasha.  
  
He headed back down the stairs and the mayhem seemed to have stopped, he spotted Sean coming towards him, he had an awful mark on his forehead and it was bleeding. He was wearing jacket that was black with a bit of blue.   
  
"You alright?" Sean asked as he wiped blood from his forehead.   
  
"I hope so… I've just got one thing to do" Jonathan said looking for Terrence, and he found him lying dead on the ground not far away.   
  
"Nice job" Sean said   
  
Jonathan pulled out a grenade.  
  
A/N: As you requested Cristalina, and do not worry he will NEVER come back again.   
  
He stuffed it into Terrance's mouth pulled the pin and backed away as Jonathan and Sean watched it explode. They watched for a while until the flames became weaker. Jonathan and Sean then went over to where Natasha's dead body was. Jonathan touched her lovingly on the cheek and kissed her.   
  
"I'll miss you… so much" Jonathan said  
  
They went back to the hotel room and got Elvis and went on the plane taking Natasha's body with them. Shock filled the Carrington Institute when news spread that Natasha was killed. They saw the ring on Natasha's finger and Jonathan knew it was no use denying that he was going to marry her.  
  
About 3 days later Jonathan was still upset but he was beginning to accept it, there was no use mopping about it although he missed her a lot. He meets up with Sean in the cafeteria.   
  
"Hi Sean" Jonathan said. He was trying to be friendly, however Sean could tell Jonathan was still upset.  
  
"Hey Jonathan… you alright?" Sean asked  
  
"I'll be fine. That mark still looks painful" Jonathan said pointing to the mark on Sean's forehead it had stopped bleeding of course, but it would take almost a month to completely heal. Jonathan also noticed Sean had a similar mark on his right arm but he couldn't see it before.   
  
"It's alright though, comes with the job" Sean replied  
  
"What did you exactly do?" Jonathan asked  
  
"I went into to the station. The Prime Minister was captured by two Skedar, I shot one of them the other one looked at me and that was enough of a distraction to let the PM get away. The other one transformed into what Elvis called the Skedar Prince, we fought and that's how I got these marks, I didn't notice the one on my arm until later but at least I did kill him" Sean said  
  
"Interesting" Jonathan said  
  
He wondered how Sean got into the Institute so young, however he didn't want to ask Sean that and he wondered if it had anything on the profiles. After Jonathan finished eating he went up to the information section known as "Hacker Central".   
  
"Hi Jonathan" Grimshaw said, without a single joke and in a somewhat sincere tone. It was almost off putting.  
  
"Hi" Jonathan replied as he as sat down on a chair and put in his clearance level which allowed him to see more detailed profiles as some involved information about the Maians and the Skedar which only people with the correct level of clearance could see. He started typing into the computer looking up Sean's profile. Soon enough it came up.  
  
Name: Sean Lomberson  
  
Age: 19 years, 3 months.  
  
Hmm, but how did in get in at that age. Jonathan thought to himself  
  
Gender: Male  
  
Race: Human/Australian  
  
Training grade: A  
  
An A, hmm he must be talented. Jonathan continued to scroll down.  
  
Information: Sean is the youngest person to be accepted to the Carrington Institute and he will probably hold onto that record forever. His parents are former agents Maria and Adrian Lomberson who were killed by a Skedar attack. Daniel Carrington himself arrived at the scene later and Sean came with Carrington and grew up around the Institute. As a result he started his training quite young but despite this he did very well.   
  
Sean is highly knowledge about Maian and Skedar politics as he talks to the Maians when Carrington is busy with work. His weapon of choice is the Falcon 2 (scope). The unique thing about this weapon is it was the first ever created and it wasn't issued to agents until recently. Sean's parents were killed while guarding this weapon from the Skedar, due to the fact it had Maian technology installed into it and the Skedar wanted to prove a connection between us and the Maians.   
  
Jonathan finished reading Sean's profile. It answered a lot of questions and it seemed that Sean must have had a tough life, although he never seemed to show it since when he saw him around the institute he almost always seemed to be in a cheerful mood with others and Jonathan could tell Sean was being careful with him, but recently he has become cheerful with Jonathan too. Later Carrington came to Jonathan in the hall.  
  
"Jonathan can I speak to you for a moment?" Carrington asked  
  
"Okay" Jonathan said.   
  
"Listen… just so you know I am not going to attend Natasha's funeral" Carrington said  
  
"Oh why not?" Jonathan asked slightly surprised, until he realised it was really none of his business "Oh sorry, you don't have to tell me" Jonathan said recovering himself  
  
"No, it's a fair question. Well Natasha may or may not have told you this but when she first joined here, her parents didn't quite agree even though they were separated. As a result they don't really like to see me at all. It's not pleasant and they are her parents. You are very welcome to go of course, but I don't think anybody else from the Institute is going." Carrington said  
  
"I'll think about it" Jonathan said as he exited the room.   
  
He headed to the firing range and found Sean and Joanna blasting the targets.  
  
"Oh hi Jonathan" Joanna said putting down her Falcon 2.   
  
"How are you going?" Sean asked also putting down his Falcon 2.  
  
"I'm alright, good to see you again Jo" Jonathan said   
  
"Yes, Mr. Carrington said I could return if I wished but my training wouldn't actually start. I envy you Sean; you were able to start my age. I can't wait" Joanna said  
  
"Yeah but I think my training grade suffered because I started too soon, although it is still very good" Sean replied  
  
"Also Sean almost lived at the institute, you as I understand Joanna are still leading a busy life" Jonathan said. Sean gave Jonathan a puzzled look wondering how he knew that, until Sean reminded himself of the computer profiles in "Hacker Central"  
  
"Yes I guess I am still busy" Joanna said after a silence  
  
"Anyway Jonathan, you mind if we talk for a minute" Sean said   
  
Jonathan nodded as Joanna took a CMP50 and started practicing.   
  
They walked just outside the firing range and walked away from the door so nobody could hear them.  
  
"I see you looked up my profile" Sean said  
  
"Yes. You didn't mind did you" Jonathan said  
  
"No, if I did I wouldn't allow information to be place on your level but what's it say?" Sean asked even though he knew the answer.  
  
"It told me about what happened when you were younger and how come you were trained at your age. It also told me you are 19 years of age which I already knew and you are Australian and obviously Human" Jonathan said "Oh and you got an A grade well done" Jonathan said  
  
"Thanks. I know I shouldn't really bring it up… but… oh never mind" Sean said and started to walk away  
  
"No spit it out. If it's about Natasha I can take it" Jonathan said. He tried to be brave and show that he could get over it, he wasn't quite sure whether he was over it or not.   
  
"Well… are you going to Natasha's funeral? I heard a lot of people here aren't going because her parents have issues with Carrington and the Institute. Sean was about continue but Jonathan interrupted   
  
"I think I should go. I guess I'll take the heat, she's worth much more then that to me" Jonathan said  
  
"Well, if you do go, I won't let you take it alone. I'll go with you" Sean replied   
  
"Thanks" Jonathan said. Even though he didn't know Sean very well he knew him better then anybody that would be attending, not only that he also knew how it felt to lose a loved one.   
  
Natasha's funeral took place a week later. Jonathan and Sean attended the funeral in typical black suits and white shirts. It was a cold, rainy day, almost identical to the day that she died. Her parents weren't even looking at each other and were as far apart as they could be and Jonathan only knew they were Natasha's parents because of one of the photos he saw. The service wasn't a very long one as there wasn't many speeches and word got around who Jonathan and Sean were but nobody there knew that the ring on Natasha's finger was actually an engagement ring.   
  
When they were burying her most of them had left, Natasha's relatives were giving looks at Jonathan and Sean, almost as if it was their fault that she died. They both tried to ignore them as they sheltered themselves from the rain with their umbrellas, she was buried and everybody walked away except for Jonathan and Sean.  
  
"You okay?" Sean asked after everybody left  
  
"I will be" Jonathan replied as he put down a bunch of flowers. "You know I never even gave her flowers…" Jonathan said. There was a long silence  
  
"Come on, I'll shout you a drink" Sean said breaking the silence and Jonathan nodded  
  
They came to a place Jonathan knew and ordered drinks. Jonathan had some beer but Sean didn't drink alcoholic stuff and had some soft drink. Although there were a few people around making noise, so whatever they said couldn't be overheard. Jonathan undid his tie as he spoke to Sean.  
  
"Thanks again for coming…" Jonathan said  
  
"It's alright" Sean replied  
  
"I'm glad Daniel didn't show. Who knows what would have happened, if looks could kill" Jonathan started…  
  
"Ignore them, they are stupid. Although if anything it was my fault for not being fast enough" Sean said   
  
"No, I should have made sure Terrance was dead for the first time. You couldn't have done much to stop it." Jonathan replied  
  
"It's no good blaming yourself for something you can't control. Take my word for it" Sean said  
  
"I'll take that advice when you do" Jonathan replied  
  
"Okay, let's admit that there was nothing neither of us could have done. It wasn't your fault and I guess you are right, I don't think I could have done much" Sean said "Say it, there is nothing you could have done" Sean said in a half demanded but also gentle tone.  
  
"Very well. There is nothing I could have done" Jonathan said. "That was very insightful…"   
  
"Yeah, I got a bit of counselling when my parents died, that's what I was told to repeat over and over again and I got over it. Sure of course it haunts me ever now and then, but that's only because I'm human" Sean replied.   
  
Jonathan nodded in agreement as both finished up and left back for the Institute to check quickly if there was anything new. They went inside and check up with Carrington but he wasn't there. They checked the firing range and found Foster.  
  
"Hi guys, how are you goin?" Foster asked  
  
"Alright I guess. Do you know where Carrington is?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yup, he's in the sims training room with Jenny" Foster replied  
  
Jenny was the expert when it came to creating simulations and she had even created human like simulants. Carrington was chatting with her.  
  
"Excellent work, these are great" Carrington said watching the simulants attempt to move and attack each other.   
  
"Maybe we should place bets on them" Jenny laughed as one of them knocked the other out  
  
"Haha. That's an idea I'll give some thought. Ah Jonathan, Sean how did it go?" Carrington asked  
  
"Well for a funeral aside from the looks and the weather it went alright" Jonathan said  
  
"Got any news for either of us?" Sean asked  
  
"As a matter of a fact I do don't worry it's not an assignment… come this way" Carrington said leading them up to his office… 


	11. Sixth mission: The mission that wasn't s...

Spider-bear: Yeah he's dead… again… forever in this fic and in any more fics that are based on future of this story but that isn't happening any time soon if at all. I am well aware you liked that, and I knew it wasn't a criticism (the metal thing).   
  
Cristilina: Well Jonathan is somebody who would want to put something like that behind him even if it was still affecting him. I get the feeling with Jonathan that he hides a lot of secrets from others. Beginning to accept something and actually accepting it are VERY different things… and I didn't want to drag Natasha on for a long time.   
  
Jonathan and Sean exchanged puzzled glances as they entered Carrington's office.  
  
"So what's the news?" Sean asked as the door closed behind him.  
  
"The Prime Minister has asked me to ask you both to attend a special meeting to thank you for your efforts… if you were available" Carrington said  
  
"Are we?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Well that's up to you… I have no objection" Carrington said  
  
"What does it involve?" Sean asked  
  
"I don't know, you'll have to wait and see" Carrington said  
  
"When is this?" Jonathan asked  
  
"2 days… so you'll be going?" Carrington asked  
  
"Yeah, how bad could it be" Sean said with a smile  
  
"Alright... but why haven't you given either of us assignments?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Well I gave you an unofficial break due to what happened and Sean has been doing some testing work in the firing range and device labs" Carrington explained   
  
Jonathan nodded as they both left. The two days passed and it was upon them, they had flown to England the previous night. They went to the arranged address and two guards greeted them.  
  
"Invitations please?" The guard asked  
  
Jonathan pulled out the two invitations and the guard nodded.  
  
"Very well enter" The second guard lead them into to the large but rather empty hall.  
  
"I had been expecting a few more people…" Sean said it echoed slightly through the hall.  
  
"Well you still want to be secret don't you?" The prime minister said as he heard the echo. He was standing on the top of a staircase.   
  
"Oh… well, I didn't think you'd use our real names" Sean replied  
  
"Ha. There are a few that will be attending but only very high ranking politicians. Come this way, we are not actually meeting here" The Prime Minister said leading them to a group of cars.   
  
Jonathan and Sean got in the limousine with the Prime Minister and the driver started the car. It was guarded by a few other police cars.   
  
"Jonathan is it?" The Prime Minister asked  
  
"Yes" Jonathan replied  
  
"I never thanked you for what you did, your role was more hidden and I only found out due to one of the security cameras catching you jump out the building" The Prime Minster said  
  
"You don't have to thank me… part of the job is to go unnoticed" Jonathan said  
  
"True but…" The Prime minister started but there was a loud crash "What on Earth was that" The Prime Minster said turning around. Soon some people leaning out of cars were beginning to fire at the police cars… they fought back and got rid of the cars chasing them until various people on the street started attacking as well with innocent people running all over the middle of London.  
  
"Would you believe it?" Sean said "Looks like we are on the job again Jon" Sean pulled out his Falcon 2. Both were instructed by Carrington to take their weapons with them.   
  
"Yeah" Jonathan replied "You go, I'll stay here and let you know what's happening. After the PM is safe I'll catch up with you" Jonathan said   
  
"Understood" Sean said as he opened the door and rolled out and began to fire.  
  
The car continued to drive on as Jonathan tried to repel his attackers with his DY357. The PM was ducking down to stay out of the firing line. The 7 police cars that they started with had been reduced to 3 as they were either destroyed or gave chase of others.   
  
"Where were we heading?" Jonathan asked   
  
"Well the plan was to go to the secret City Hall as we call it. It's safe there" The Prime Minister said  
  
"Okay… how far?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Right here actually" He replied  
  
"Good…" Jonathan said as he fired a few more shots off each meeting their targets.  
  
The car headed into an undercover car park and a wall opened up inside. They got out.  
  
"You think you'll be safe here?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Definitely… there are countless security measures and escapes and only 4 people know about it" The PM said  
  
"Excellent. Stay here" Jonathan replied as he went back the way he went in and went back outside.  
  
He pulled out his communication device and reloaded his Magnum.   
  
"Sean you copy?" Jonathan said  
  
"Yeah I'm here, just a little occupied" Sean said as a few gun shots were heard.   
  
"What's going on?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Basically this is another dataDyne attack, clearly they are still after the PM." Sean said  
  
"Makes sense, but why attack on the day we show"  
  
There was silence on the other end…  
  
"Sean you alright?" Jonathan said after a moment  
  
"Yes. I've just got it under control for the moment. Maybe somebody knew we were coming, wanting to kill two birds with one stone" Sean said  
  
"But for somebody to know we were coming, it would have to be somebody from the inside, but that's..." Jonathan said and stopped  
  
"Jon?" Sean asked  
  
"I got to go, I can't meet up with you, good luck" Jonathan said as he ran back inside to where the PM was. Thankfully he was still there.  
  
"What's going on, I thought you were going to help your friend" The Prime Minister said  
  
"I was, but we have reason to believe there is an insider who knows we are here, so we have to move" Jonathan said   
  
Just then the room filled with gas. Jonathan tried to get the PM out but it was too overpowering and both were knocked out. The gas lifted and Trent and Cassandra entered the room.   
  
"Ahh… looks like we have you again, Jonathan" Trent said  
  
"How did you know about this place?" Cassandra asked   
  
"One time I asked an agent and eventually got it out of him… I was so surprised when he just blurted out this big secret to me, including the arrival of Jonathan and his partner. I mean I am head of the NSA but blurting secrets like that" Trent shook his head  
  
"Whatever, at least we were able to take advantage of it. Come on we won't have much time before his partner comes to the rescue" Cassandra said   
  
"Not so fast" Jonathan stood up and held his Magnum at Trent…  
  
"What impossible!" Trent said out of surprise...   
  
"Get him!" Cassandra shouted as various guards fired but Jonathan dived behind a table and fought back while Trent and Cassandra ran, the PM was still out cold. Jonathan tried to fight but he couldn't stop the guards taking the PM, there were too many to kill to stop them, although he nailed the 5 guards that were around him and the room was empty again.   
  
Meanwhile Sean and allied guards were taking down the enemy when suddenly they went into a retreat.   
  
"What? What's going on?" One of the allied guards said out of surprise  
  
"Looks like a full retreat, I don't know why" Sean replied  
  
"Sean this is Jonathan" Jonathan said over the radio  
  
"I read you Jon, what's up?" Sean asked  
  
"The PM has been captured… again… this time they've really got away" Jonathan replied  
  
"Damn it… what do we do…" Sean continued to look around just in case.   
  
"According to this scan, he's heading to the dataDyne building in London, Sean can you intercept them? You are in the perfect position" Jonathan said  
  
"Sure… Got any idea what the car looks like?" Sean asked  
  
"According to this data I'm getting here off the Prime Minister's scanner he's in a black limo, it should stick out like a sore thumb" Jonathan said  
  
Jonathan also gave him the area where the car is heading and its license plate. Sean ran to the area with Falcon 2 hidden and came to the point where he planned to intercept them. He spotted them and fired his weapon at the each of the cars left side tyres 4 times flattening them forcing the car to crash in the wall due to the suddenness of Sean's attack. Sean had got the right target and he knew it when Trent and Cassandra climbed out of the car and ran, the PM was still in there. Sean ran to his aid when…  
  
"Not so fast" A woman's voice came and before Sean could react he had been kicked down hard. He fell to the ground and looked up. He thought he was seeing double but no he wasn't… there were indeed two identical women standing in front of him, they moved in again but Sean was quick to his feet. They wore a dark red tops and black on the bottom with sneakers. It was a highly unusual look for somebody from dataDyne but maybe that was Cassandra's idea. His Falcon 2 was out of ammo and he had no more… he put it away.  
  
"Oh… out of ammo… poor baby" The second women said mockingly and put her hands on the ground and went into the air diving herself at him but he dodged it. He gave her a swift punch and she fell backwards out of surprise.   
  
"Hey what's that about, hitting a lady… didn't you get taught any manners" The first woman said hands on her hips…  
  
"What kind of lady works for Cassandra anyway" Sean countered   
  
"That would be us… and others, but we are the best… meet the ultimate team. Canary and Mary!" The first woman who was Canary said proudly. Sean gave a quick smirk and laughed.   
  
"Think its funny do you, well it is a bit but… errr… anyway check out this" Mary said as she and Canary came together and then energy came around them  
  
"Wha?" Sean said and he moved out of the way and it was a good thing he did, the energy came right at him in a brilliant red spark knocking the trash can behind him sending it about 10 metres away.  
  
"Oh… he's an evasive one… let's get him" Canary said as Mary moved in closer.  
  
Mary got within hand to hand range and let out a kick but Sean parried it and tripped her, Canary came right at him and kicked him down and he fell to the floor.  
  
"Haha… you are no match… just give in" Canary taunted  
  
"Not so easily…" Sean got back to his feet quickly in time to face Mary's double back fist attack which he ducked and Canary then went over the top of Mary and tried to land a blow on Sean but he rolled out of the way and grabbed Canary and threw her towards Mary who both crashed to the ground. Suddenly gun shots were heard and Jonathan came Magnum in hand and shot both Canary and Mary.  
  
"Who were they?" Jonathan asked puzzled as they walked over to the car and found the PM  
  
"Canary and Mary apparently" Sean replied  
  
"Very funny Sean, this isn't the time for jokes" Jonathan said   
  
"I'm not kidding… they work for Cassandra. Cass and Trent ran for it when I shot the tyres out" Sean replied  
  
"You okay… hopefully that will be the end of it" Jonathan said  
  
"Yes, but apparently they were told to release me on the radio but they wouldn't listen… apparently those people have found what they are searching for… whatever it is" The Prime Minister said  
  
Jonathan and Sean exchanged concerned looks.  
  
"Did you happen to find out whether they had it?" Sean asked  
  
"Judging by the conversation I'd guess they don't have it but I'm not certain, I'm not very good at these things especially when one fears they will pull the trigger at any second" The Prime Minister said  
  
"Okay, at least they won't be after you anymore" Jonathan said  
  
"Jonathan we've got to head back to Carrington and tell him what's going on" Sean said  
  
"Very well. I'm sorry this wasn't what it was supposed to be... good luck" The Prime Minister said  
  
"Thanks… goodbye" Jonathan said and both shook his hand.  
  
They headed back to the Institute to tell Carrington the news.  
  
"This isn't good… we don't even know what the Skedar are searching for, it could be anything, it may be just rumour, and it may not even exist. However while it is a concerning issue there is no way of us knowing at this stage what and where this thing is, as a result there is nothing we can really…" Carrington said but he was interrupted mid sentence by a massive explosion it seemed very close.  
  
"WHAT was that!?" Carrington shouted sounding alarmed…  
  
"Don't look now but that was the front door. We are under attack!" Jonathan replied with a shout.   
  
A/N: You'll have to forgive this more than obvious rip off of Perfect Dark Mission 7 but there is very good reason for it… 


	12. Seventh mission: A hurried defence

Spider bear: Yeah I changed the names now though. Just so you know 3 to 4 chapters left.   
  
Cristalina: I needed some kind of cover up to let Trent and Cassandra get away and I figured Canary and Mary were the ideal diversion (if you didn't know a character in Banjo-Tooie is called Canary Mary). The previous names as shown in Spider bear's review were more clever though and funny.   
  
*Bit of story backtracking and other stuff here.   
  
A clear up on what the Skedar/Datadyne purpose in London since I probably thought this in my head but never actually put it in understandable words. Trent and Cassandra's reasons for being in London is no secret, the Skedar were not directly involved in the London attack, just dataDyne (I never said this since our heroes never had the chance).   
  
They make a plan to capture the British PM at that meeting Jonathan recorded just before being captured by Terrance. The Skedar seem to think the British PM knows the whereabouts of "their ship" but he keeps it secret from everybody else to keep the peace.   
  
At this point all the CI the Maians and even dataDyne/Trent know at this point is that the Skedar are trying to find their own ship. Little did any of them know was that what the Skedar were truly looking for was the location of the Cetan Megaweapon. When Trent and Cass were told to release the PM it was because the Skedar had found the location of the Cetan Megaweapon or as dataDyne knew it "their ship" and the Skedar didn't want any unwanted attention, from world governments putting them and their temporary allies in danger. Obviously they could not get the Megaweapon themselves due to it being buried deep under the Pacific Ocean, and the rest of this part of the story is explained in Perfect Dark.   
  
The PM himself was blindfolded and never saw Cass and Trent, this is side story and can't be told from the point of view of either Jonathan or Sean. That needed to be said, and now it has been.  
  
If this were an actual Perfect Dark game (yeah right) this would be explained in a story summary. Try to imagine this as the prequel to Perfect Dark, AKA Perfect Dark Zero, the game that will probably never come out for various reasons (and it's not on Gamecube, although I'd be grateful for its release on any system). In reality that is what I should have named the story, but if Perfect Dark Zero were to be made by the same team as Perfect Dark, I think the storyline would follow something like this, Jonathan as the main character and various events related to Perfect Dark happening. It is clear that Jonathan knows Elvis before Perfect Dark as Elvis says in Area 51 Escape "You're from the institute aren't you, I recognise you from before" this clearly stats Elvis has met Jonathan previously.   
  
There are two reasons why I think the game was/is called Perfect Dark Zero, 1) It takes place before Perfect Dark One and 2) Jonathan IS Perfect Dark Zero, the agent who held the records before Joanna broke them with perfect score getting her code name. Of course Jon wouldn't be codenamed Perfect Dark Zero, but it's a clever way of saying Jonathan came before Joanna, almost getting perfect but falling just short.   
  
Now all that chatter is done with on with the story…  
  
Jonathan was right, the Institute was indeed under attack.   
  
"Both of you, rush to Foster's weapons lab" Carrington said "Try to get as many out as possible, lead them to the Hangar, come back for me when it's all clear I'll be safe in here" He added before the pair left and drew their pistols and fired and various dataDyne troops who had bust down the front door.   
  
"Wouldn't knocking do?" Sean said sarcastically as he jumped over the first floor railing  
  
"What are you doing?" Jonathan said as Sean made a clean landing on the ground firing a bit more.  
  
"You take care of what's on the first floor to the lift, we'll meet at Foster's" Sean said as he ran off  
  
Jonathan didn't like taking orders from Sean, but he knew there was no time to argue and the fact he was also right. Jonathan cleaned out the guards that had crowded around the elevator as Sean tried to deal with some of them himself but even after they were all dead gunshots were still begin fired.  
  
"Sean is the lift clear?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yeah, just don't do what I did before" Sean said  
  
Jonathan didn't know what Sean had meant by that but took the lift and learned why, he saw about 3 guards firing as he went down the lift. Sean had managed to take cover behind the wall and pick them off and Jonathan took care of the last one. They ran into Foster's weapons lab and encountered a few dead bodies of enemy men. They called out before taking another step.  
  
"Foster its Jonathan and Sean" Jonathan called out  
  
"Oh good, hurry" Foster replied  
  
They walked in and Foster showed them his two latest projects.   
  
"This is the completed AR34 assault rifle, no doubt it's useful right now" Foster said  
  
"…and the other weapon?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Laptop gun, 30 rounds not as powerful as the AR34 but of course it folds into a computer and can be thrown away for a grenade effect" Foster explained handing Jonathan the Laptop gun.   
  
"Fantastic. Let's move" Jonathan said as Sean took the AR34. "Go to the Hangar, we'll cover you" Jonathan said  
  
"Very well" Foster replied as the trio moved down into the Hangar but on the way they heard screams. Sean immediately ran towards the room he heard them from.   
  
"Okay, you get them out, I'll escort them alright?" Jonathan said  
  
"Cool" Sean replied as he went into the room carefully  
  
Jonathan encountered small amounts of resistance but not very much as he escorted Foster to the Hangar where a jumpship was waiting.  
  
"Excellent" Carrington said from inside  
  
"Wha? How'd you get here?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Secret passages in the Institute that only I know about. I use them for times like this" Carrington replied "Keep going"   
  
Jonathan knew this wasn't the time to ask about the issue, he returned to the room where Sean had heard the screams from and he was escorting Jenny out.  
  
"Is she alright?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes, what about Carrington though, I don't trust his office protection" Sean said  
  
"He's in the Hangar, don't ask I don't know how he got there" Jonathan replied  
  
"Whatever, I'm working on this floor first" Sean said  
  
"Alright, I've got a better idea. Why don't we both escort them and rescue them" Jonathan said  
  
"Yeah, okay" Sean replied   
  
The two of them worked on the bottom floor and released the Institute staff without much trouble. They repeated the process on the first floor and got everybody in the jumpship.  
  
"That does it" Sean said   
  
Just then a loud roar was heard… a very familiar roar.  
  
"Or not…" Jonathan said  
  
"Listen I'll call another jumpship for you two, fight off what ever is left here. I can advise you if need be" Carrington said  
  
"Alright, good luck" Jonathan watched the jumpship depart and another came in.  
  
They looked around trying to work out where the roar had come from and when they looked in the courtyard in the very centre of the Institute their question was answered. 5 Skedar surrounding a mysterious Skedar ship. They started firing and Sean and Jonathan fought back and their new weapons caught the Skedar off guard killing 3 of them very quickly. They reloaded and combined their fire to kill the remaining two.  
  
"I wonder what's in the ship" Jonathan said "It hasn't attacked us"  
  
"That's because…" He paused and thought for a moment "it's a bomb!" Sean shouted alarmed  
  
"What how do you know?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Because of the markings here, the Maians told me about these, I'll see if I can defuse it. Cover me if need be" Sean said dropping his rifle and looking around the ship. About 2 dataDyne guards showed which Jonathan dealt with easily, followed by a single Skedar who was also outgunned. Five more guards came that were also dealt with due to Jonathan's expertise.   
  
"Uh oh… there is no way we can stop this going off now" Sean said  
  
"We've got to run for it then?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yes. There is nothing I can do, unless I could hack with the piloting systems, but Grimshaw is the only person who could have any idea where to start with that" Sean said   
  
"How long?" Jonathan asked  
  
"1 minute, we've got to start running now" Sean said as he ran away from the ship.  
  
Just as they were exiting a dataDyne guard drew their attention and fired, Jonathan tried to deal with him and he killed him. Sean urged Jonathan to hurry as they went out the front door. The explosion happened as soon as Sean was outside the Institute he dived and the explosion was a good distance away from him. He looked around, he couldn't see Jonathan. He walked closer to the burning building and saw Jonathan unconscious, his legs looked like they didn't quite get out of the explosion range.  
  
"Jonathan!" Sean called out  
  
"What was that?" Carrington said through the radio  
  
"A Skedar bomb, I couldn't stop it…." Sean said  
  
"And Jonathan?" Carrington said  
  
"I think he's alive but he's unconscious and his legs look liked they have been burned badly by the explosion…" Sean replied. People began to come running to the scene of the explosion. "People are here so I can't talk about certain things now" Sean said  
  
"Hmm… don't worry, we got everybody out the building is replaceable but the people are not. I'll be landing in a minute, although I think Jonathan's career might very well be over" Carrington said   
  
Sean looked over at his unconscious friend, wondering if what Carrington had said was true. Whether Jonathan would even survive, but Carrington landed and got Sean's help got Jonathan's body onto the jumpship and left again just before the media, fire and ambulance services arrived.   
  
"Well, not that this is good in anyway at all, but we had build a smaller building in a more deserted location" Carrington said  
  
"I see… will Jonathan be alright?" He looked up and saw Elvis looking over his body "How'd you get here?" Sean asked  
  
"They picked me up from the villa. Jonathan's legs can be repaired but I do not think human technology is able to do this" Elvis said  
  
They arrived at the new building which as Carrington said was in a far more deserted location. It was considerably smaller but they landed and everybody inside the jumpship seemed to move to certain rooms.   
  
"Can you heal Jonathan now?" Sean asked   
  
"Now I can since we've stopped" Elvis pulled out a typical blue Maian device and applied to Jonathan's legs, he twitched a little bit but the burn marks and damage done seem to fade immediately. Jonathan began to wake up.  
  
"Ah you are awake again" Carrington said   
  
"What's happened… I thought I'd wake up dead" Jonathan moaned  
  
"Almost, you had a close call. However your legs weren't as fortunate" Carrington said  
  
"What? I don't understand they are still there" Jonathan replied  
  
"But they wouldn't be if Elvis didn't use something" Carrington said  
  
"Take a walk around, I'm not sure if your movement will be as good as it used to be" Elvis said.   
  
Jonathan took a walk around, and broke into a run. He knew what Elvis meant, he could still move at good speed but not as fast as he used to.  
  
"Yeah I definitely feel slower…" Jonathan said "Not a big difference though"  
  
"Hmm… as such Elvis suggested you start undercover work, this is after all what you wanted to start with… I know you are used to your more active role and you are welcome to keep it since you don't seem too badly effected" Carrington said  
  
Jonathan thought for a moment, it was what he wanted but he did like the role he had just been placed into. However undercover work did have its appeal it was more of Jonathan's style…   
  
"I guess I agree…" Jonathan said finally   
  
"Excellent. However let's keep this to ourselves, only we know of the damage done to you. Thankfully everybody else was on the other side of the ship" Carrington said  
  
"Okay, but there won't be much use in me doing undercover against dataDyne since I've become well known there" Jonathan said  
  
"I wouldn't bet on that, Cassandra has over 3000 guards, and a lot of them die as soon as they meet you" Carrington said with a slight grin on his face  
  
"Thanks I think" Jonathan said  
  
"Yes it was a compliment, anyway are you feeling okay aside the slight slowness in quick movement?" Carrington asked  
  
"Yeah I'm fine" Jonathan replied  
  
"Good. Now it is obvious that Cassandra with her Skedar allies planned this attack. What we want you Jonathan to do is to go into Lucerne tower again and take a guard's uniform. Sean you will knock out the cameras with an ECM mine so Jonathan won't be detected. After this, Jonathan will attempt to work out whether Cassandra is in the building or not. If so you Sean go in and capture Cassandra even though it may be politically risky, and we may have to release her quickly but just as long as we have her for long enough to get it out of her what the Skedar plans are" Carrington said in a quick briefing  
  
"But Cassandra probably won't talk" Jonathan said  
  
"And I would bet this is going to get us into hot water" Sean added  
  
"That's a chance we are going to have to take… you will leave at 8 pm tomorrow" Carrington said and the two agents nodded.  
  
Neither understood why Carrington wanted to capture Cassandra right now and capturing her wouldn't exactly be a cakewalk, and knowing dataDyne and their links with the NSA, at most Carrington is only going to get a day to talk it out of her what the Skedar plans are, and Cassandra would be very unlikely to cooperate with Carrington. It just seemed like a fruitless exercise, however Carrington seemed to know what he was doing and they had no choice but to trust his judgement.  
  
On looking at the new Institute it was considerably smaller, with 2 rooms on the main floor and 4 rooms at the top, and the hangar on the bottom floor. However it did have all it really needed, a firing range, a hologram training room, device lab and of course Hacker Central. However it was a good distance away from anything, it was about an hour from Jonathan's place to the new Institute. Of course the advantage of this was that you wouldn't have to worry about people peering inside. 


	13. Eighth mission: Stealth and capture

Christalina: I'm not actually sure. I was just told by somebody that I shouldn't mention celebrities in fics. Even though what I did doesn't mention the actual person.  
  
Spider-bear: Yeah, I needed some excuse to shift him to undercover and I was tossing between doing it at the near end or the very end of the story. I see you like my work on the time line making everything fit into place and not just letting it fall into a plot hole.   
  
As the sun was setting and it was clearly visible due to the new surroundings. Jonathan gave a deep sigh as he looked down to his legs, they didn't seem any different by look and judging by what happened he thought to himself that he should be grateful that he was walking. He looked down from the middle floor overlooking part of the hangar and saw Sean training with another agent. Sean seemed faster then his training partner, he was almost jealous of him but he knew that Sean had gone through a lot to get to where he was. The nameless agent gave a punch but Sean easily grabbed it and tripped him up. Sean then waved to Jonathan and he returned it.  
  
"Oh Jonathan… are you sure you are okay?" Carrington asked from inside.  
  
"Yes sir… Sean's quite strong isn't he?" Jonathan commented trying to change the subject  
  
"Well yes, but so he should be" Carrington said as he looked over the balcony and watched Sean and his partner go for another round. "That style he uses… quite powerful" Carrington said   
  
Jonathan had to get used to driving home instead of just being able to walk it, although it was a relaxing drive and only near the end in the city there was some traffic. The next morning he woke from his sleep and made some quick breakfast at home, no longer was he able to eat at the Institute, he sighed deeply as he drove to work again. When he entered and headed to the main floor, Foster got Jonathan's attention.   
  
"Carrington wants to see you, Sean is already waiting" Foster said  
  
"Thanks" Jonathan said quietly  
  
"Are you alright?" Foster asked. Jonathan was sick of that question. He had nearly lost his legs in an explosion, and would probably never to the work of an active agent again and on top of that he lost the woman he was going to marry.   
  
"Yeah I'm fine" Jonathan lied just as he done to Carrington  
  
"Okay…" Foster replied   
  
Jonathan tried to remove those thoughts from his head as he walked into Carrington's office, ready from the briefing on tonight. It would be a good experience if nothing went wrong and the capture went smoothly but Jonathan knew that was not going to happen. He even thought it was risky being one of Cassandra's guards again.   
  
"Okay, now I know you both have your doubts but this is the only card we can play" Carrington said  
  
Jonathan was tempted to counter with "do we both get a suicide pill" but he held it in.   
  
"Firstly, change of plans. Jonathan you go in first, do what you did last time and become a guard. Since the front door will be closed it is up to you Jonathan to change the controls from the top floor after jamming the cameras. Should be quite easy for you" Carrington said  
  
"Yes sir" Jonathan said without a bit of sarcasm in his voice, that did seem easy if nothing had changed and everything was still in the same place, knowing dataDyne it probably would be.  
  
"Meanwhile Sean will be waiting around nearby waiting for you to say you've opened the door. After you've unlocked the front door it should be easy for Sean to get in who will probably be immediately questioned by the guards since the door is almost always locked at that time and in which he just knocks them out since there are always two guards on the front door, it should be quite easy for you to knock out both of them." Carrington said  
  
"Yes" Sean said  
  
"After that Sean works his way up the building and you Jonathan try to find the switch that unlocks the door to Cassandra's office. She will definitely be there as she is getting ready for a meeting with some of the other dataDyne officials. After you find the switch that unlocks the door do not touch it as this will obviously blow your cover, just let Sean know of it's location and let him know of how they are placing guards, this will make it really easy for him to swat them down or better yet avoid them. Jonathan after you have scouted the top three office levels go back to the room near the helipad exit and when Sean has Cassandra come back and help escort her" Carrington said  
  
Both agents nodded. Maybe it would work, although it really shouldn't be that easy and they both knew that. However Carrington seemed to have it well planned and he could always advise as he did should anything go wrong.  
  
The time came; both of them ate dinner after training in the morning and relaxing in the afternoon so they would be ready for tonight. Jonathan got on the jumpship and it took off. Sean meanwhile drove himself into to the city and waiting in the park about 2 blocks away for Jonathan's call, no need to be too close yet. Sean wore a red and black jacket on top of a blue T-shirt with black pants and black sneakers.   
  
He ran his hand through his hair and tried not to think about the mission ahead too much. Carrington was never this hasty or risky before why the sudden change, maybe the old institute being destroyed had this effect on him, although he did say the people were the most important thing and not the building but that didn't mean the building was worthless.   
  
Jonathan made a perfect jump from the jumpship on the helipad. He signalled to the pilot that he made a successful landing and he flew off. Again as always there was a single guard with a security camera, Jonathan shot the guard and quickly followed by blasting the glass out of the camera with his Magnum. At least he could still shoot accurately, Jonathan smiled to himself as he took the guards uniform and hid the body behind a box and took the CMP50 they hadn't upgraded it yet, probably because of the time he broke in and stole the prototype.   
  
Jonathan walked in, same dim witted guard as last time.   
  
"Hi, good to see you again, it's been a more than a week hasn't it" the guard said. Jonathan nodded.  
  
How dumb could you get? Didn't you notice a difference in the guy that walked out and me, thought Jonathan.   
  
"Are you alright?" He asked and Jonathan was overwhelmed by the urge to knock this guy out, and he did so and shot the cameras that were fortunately turned in the other direction with the guards CMP50 and was quiet about it.   
  
"If I only I could have done that to Foster" Jonathan said with a slight smile, he had wanted to nail the next guy who asked him that for ages.   
  
Jonathan moved on and used the data uplink on the control system. Carrington was wrong for a change, an ECM mine would be no good on this type of computer, they changed their systems. Grimshaw hacked away into the computer and turned off the security cameras and then opened the front door. Grimshaw also shut off the jamming and tracking of radio transmissions so Jon and Sean could talk without fear of being intercepted.   
  
"It's open" Jonathan said  
  
"Understood" Sean replied  
  
Sean sat up and hid his Falcon 2 scope and walked past the automatic sliding door that was normally locked at this time of night but just as Jonathan had told him it was indeed open. The two guards came out.  
  
"Hey kid what did you do?" One of the guards asked. For once Sean was glad he was called a kid, it meant they had no idea who he really was.  
  
"Oh, no idea…I was just walking past" Sean replied  
  
"Ah… damned door, honestly the number of times…" the second guard started but that was all he got out as Sean elbowed him and head butted the other guard and entered.  
  
"That was easy" Sean said   
  
Jonathan scouted the first three levels as instructed, he also worked out that the switch was on the highest of the office levels and Cassandra's office was on the opposite side of the room across the walkway which was almost like a bridge. This wasn't as hard as Jonathan thought, he was done. All he had to do was return to that room and repeat what he knew to Sean. He went up the stairs and kicked the dim witted guard again for good measure as he returned to the helipad.  
  
"Hey Sean?" Jonathan said  
  
"Just a… sec…" was the reply as Jonathan heard a gun shot over the radio.  
  
"Okay…" Sean said   
  
"Basically the set up is like this…" Jonathan gave a basic positioning of the guards of the three office levels as Carrington had instructed although Sean knew it was only required of him to kill any of those who saw him on getting out of the lowest office level.   
  
"The office switch is on the highest office level, Cass' office is across the bridge like entrance. It's very easy to spot, it's on a table and it's guarded by just a single guard with another walking around. That should be easy for you to break shouldn't it?" Jonathan said  
  
"Piece of cake" Sean replied "I'll let you know when I have her"   
  
"Be careful though" Jonathan said "Let me know if you need back up"  
  
"Will do…" Sean said  
  
Sean put aside the radio and reloaded the Falcon 2 once more. He entered the lift and crouched down so that he may be lucky and none of the guards on the lower office level would see him otherwise he would have to go into a fire fight. The lift door opened and the glass on the right of Sean shattered as gun fire passed over his head, he turned around and fired a few shots, but the guard had hid behind the wall.   
  
"Get him!" The guard shouted. He had no time to think as three guards went on the attack and he had to hide in the stair case and tried to return their fire and took down two of the guards but in doing so he attracted attention from three more.   
  
"It's no good, surrender" They shouted as they fired some more. Sean took the CMP50 and fired around the door and heard a few screams and redrew his Falcon and finished the last two off. He knew he had drawn attention as two guards from the second floor rushed down and fired catching him slightly off guard, but he dived around the door and they predictably followed only to be shot.   
  
"Whew, close call" Sean said to himself as he loaded the Falcon 2.   
  
He went up to the top office level and opened the door, just as Jonathan had said a single guard standing guard over the switch and Sean simply nailed him in the head and heard the footsteps of his comrade and dived out and shot him as well. Pressing the switch he heard the unlocking sound, maybe Carrington's plan would work after all. He walked across the bridge and opened the door.  
  
"How the hell did you get here!" Cassandra demanded   
  
"Never mind that, come here now!" Sean demanded in return  
  
"I will not be pushed around by some kid" Cassandra replied in the same tone  
  
"Well I could pull this trigger right here… but you don't want me to do that do you" Sean said  
  
"You wouldn't shoot me. Carrington wouldn't allow that" Cassandra said  
  
Sean walked closer to Cassandra.  
  
"Let's see how you deal with…" that's all Cassandra got out as Sean had thrown his Falcon at her as she looked like she was about to press a switch. It landed perfectly and knocked her out on the forehead. Sean was about to radio Jonathan when suddenly somebody dropped from the ceiling and kicked it out of his hands and out the window.   
  
"So… this is what has become of you" The man said, he didn't have a gun on him and stood a distance away. Sean's gun was underneath the table and he had no chance of reaching it and also had no way of contacting Jonathan. He looked at this man, he was slightly taller than he was with short black hair with brown eyes.   
  
"What do you mean by that?" Sean replied. This man did look familiar  
  
"Sean… do you not know who I am?" The man replied  
  
"Not a clue… I've got stuff to do so if you don't mind move out of the way, or I will make you" Sean said knowing the man wouldn't budge.   
  
"Your mother had that in her too, using empty threats. While I am slightly impressed with your skill, it is no match to my own" The man said   
  
"But…" Sean started. That line, it was said by his father all the time, to his opponents before wiping the floor with them. "You can't be" Sean said. This man was exactly as Sean remembered his father.   
  
"Yes, it is I Adrian Lombreson, your daddy… took you long enough. Carrington knew what had happened, but he didn't care to tell you and I knew he wouldn't, he always kept secrets from his agents until the last minute or in your case until it was too late" Adrian said with an evil smile.   
  
Sean could only stare at him in disbelief.   
  
"The Skedar only killed your mother where as I told them where the secret was and if only Carrington hadn't arrived, the Skedar would have won this war long ago" Adrian said "And ever since those Skedar's allowed me to do something like this I could never refuse their offer" Adrian finished and transformed into a Skedar before Sean's eyes and back again.  
  
"But I don't want to rip you to pieces since that would be too easy, I want to see what you have taught yourself and how Carrington has trained you over the years" Adrian said   
  
"So you joined the race of cowards, I hope you are happy with yourself" Sean said, anger flowed through him for numerous reasons. Why did Carrington never tell him, why did his father betray him.  
  
"Well, you should be remotely amusing but let's see what you can do" Adrian said and stepped even further away.   
  
Sean stared at Adrian, he charged at him with a dive kick but Adrian sidestepped. Sean aggressively moved into an elbow attack but Adrian blocked and grabbed but in doing so Sean head butted, it hurt Sean but it hurt Adrian worse.  
  
"Not bad, but let's see what you are truly made of" Adrian said as he began to go into a high kick but Sean ducked underneath and gave him a punch straight to the face and tripped him. Adrian quickly stood back up but Sean was so angered that Adrian was punched once more as he staggered backwards into the wall and Sean immediately followed by giving him an elbow to the stomach. Adrian fell to the floor, there was a bit of blood on the carpet. However again Adrian stood up.  
  
"Haha… excellent, but this is just the beginning" Adrian said as he jumped over the desk and punched out the window and picked up Cassandra. Sean just noticed the jetpack on Adrian's back and he went out the window with the unconscious Cassandra. Jonathan soon entered the office he just saw Sean looking out the window.   
  
"Hey where's Cassandra and why didn't you radio me?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Cassandra got away, somebody took her by jetpack. I…" Sean started. Jonathan knew something was wrong but after all these people had been asking him if he was alright, he didn't want to ask the same question.  
  
"What happened?" Jonathan asked  
  
"My Dad… he's alive… but… he's a Skedar now… I don't understand it. What I REALLY don't understand is how Carrington knew all these years and never told me. We fought for a moment but eventually he took Cassandra and got away out the window using some kind of jetpack" Sean said  
  
"Oh I see… are you sure Carrington knew?" Jonathan asked  
  
Something just occurred to Sean, maybe his father only told him Carrington knew to aggravate him.   
  
"No… I still don't understand why, he would want to join a race of such cowards, a race that doesn't care whether they kill thousands of innocent people as long as they get what they want, it just isn't anything like him at all" Sean said  
  
"We can deal with your Dad later. There was something very interesting I found out. Check it out" Jonathan said  
  
Sean got his weapon from underneath the table and they went down to the bottom floor and on the opposite end of the secret research labs was another wall which Jonathan tapped and it opened. Both walked in and it was a strange cave like passage way. At the end of it was a motor boat, and Cassandra was talking to Adrian as they were loading stuff onto the boat. The cave seemed to exit to an outside area which must be an underground river of some kind.   
  
"So that boy is your son?" Cassandra asked  
  
"Yes… I never would have thought Carrington would have sent him out. I heard rumours, but didn't believe them. To think that he killed the Skedar prince… well it won't be long before the King orders to have his head" Adrian said  
  
"Why couldn't you beat him yourself, what kind of bodyguard are you?" Cassandra asked  
  
"He's a lot stronger then I thought, I made a stupid mistake and I paid for it, but I got you out didn't I?" Adrian replied  
  
"I suppose you did. Are you ready?" Cassandra asked  
  
"Yes, let's move" Adrian replied as the engine started up and they went inside the boat.   
  
"Jonathan got a tracker?" Sean whispered  
  
"Yup, of course" Jonathan replied and carefully ran out so Cass and Adrian wouldn't see them and with perfect aim he threw the tracker and it landed on the ship as it sped away through the exit.  
  
They walked outside and the jumpship came to them in the middle of the park and headed back to the Institute.   
  
"What happened? Did you not capture Cassandra" Carrington asked them as they walked into his office  
  
"No, she got away" Jonathan said  
  
"How?" Carrington asked  
  
"A man took her using a jetpack. We fought but I couldn't stop him, Jonathan came and showed me this secret passage, and we found him and Cassandra getting on a boat. We placed a tracker and we just have to wait and see" Sean explained  
  
"What did this man look like?" Carrington asked.   
  
"He… he's my father…" Sean said "He… became a Skedar I don't know quite how or why or whatever but it was him… there was no mistaking it" Sean said. Carrington gave a deep sigh.  
  
"I knew you would find out sooner or later… I'm sorry I never told you before but I was just waiting for the right opportunity and I just kept delaying it and delaying it." Carrington said   
  
"So you knew? I understand keeping it from me when I was younger but surely you must have known the chances of me meeting him again were reasonably high" Sean replied  
  
"As I said I'm sorry… telling somebody that their father has not died but turned into a Skedar isn't easy, for one you may not have believed me and you may have gone looking for him, or you may have even turned to the Skedar yourself. As you are older you saw your father as nothing but an enemy" Carrington explained.   
  
Sean thought this over in his head, Carrington was right he did consider his father an enemy, maybe that was why his father wasn't trying very hard in the battle to see whether Sean would not fight.   
  
"I can't understand why. The Skedar aren't exactly the most tolerant race of humans are they?" Sean asked  
  
"Of course not, but your father had something the Skedar wanted. Information on the Maians, and as long as your Dad was an agent for us he would be useful to them. However he wasn't actually supposed to be present that night when you're mother was killed, but your mother suspecting something and asked your father to stay at home instead of going out somewhere I never got the full story. Anyway as a result the Skedar only pretended to kill your Dad and they actually did kill your mother and took him just before we entered the house" Carrington explained  
  
"But after he lost his cover, why did the Skedar keep him alive?" Sean asked  
  
"Because as a true human he knew Earth much better then they did, which would help them find whatever they are searching for. Your Dad joined the ranks at dataDyne and ironically trained Terrence there, your Dad however spent more time at the European and Asian dataDyne areas so this is why you did not encounter him before. I do not know however how your Dad is able to become a Skedar, but the fact is he can, which can't be good for us" Carrington said  
  
"What's our next move?" Sean asked  
  
"Simple. We wait and see where that tracker leads us. I don't know what they are planning, but did you see what they were putting on the boat?" Carrington asked  
  
"No sir. No idea" Jonathan said, a little surprised by how much Carrington knew about basically everything.   
  
"Very well. You are dismissed" Carrington said  
  
Sean was more understanding of why Carrington did not tell him about his father before, but it didn't mean taking it was any easier.  
  
"Don't shoot me for asking but are you alright?" Jonathan asked, he now regretted getting so annoyed about people asking him that question before, it was only because they cared.   
  
"Actually I am. Seriously. I can ask myself why he did this, but all that's important is that I put a bullet in his head or knock him off a tall building" Sean said  
  
"Or put a grenade in his mouth" Jonathan added  
  
"Exactly, if I think about it too much when or if it comes to facing him I may not be able to go through with it" Sean said  
  
"Alright. I'll be seeing you later" Jonathan said  
  
"Thanks. See ya" Sean replied  
  
Sean was finding it difficult not think about why his father did what he did. Was it greed of wanting power or was there a much deeper reason. 


	14. Ninth mission part 1: Mysterious island

Spider bear: Yes, I wasn't expecting that either to be honest :).   
  
Sean was around the Institute and it was 12am. Jonathan had left a few hours ago and the only people around now were Grimshaw and Carrington. Sean went up to hacker central and saw Carrington with Grimshaw looking on a computer screen, Carrington was typing stuff into the computer.  
  
"Oh hello Sean, what are you still doing here at this time?" Carrington asked  
  
"Just looking around" Sean replied but Carrington didn't believe him, however at the same time Carrington knew Sean probably didn't want to talk about what had happened.   
  
It was then Sean got a look at what Carrington was doing. He was updating his father's profile, to make it read the more accurate information. Then Carrington moved to another screen, it appeared to be a map of the globe and Carrington appeared to be tracking something.  
  
"It appears to have stopped you think so sir?" Grimshaw asked  
  
"Definitely, but why stop in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean?" Carrington asked  
  
"Hmm… maybe they ran out of fuel or something like that?" Grimshaw said  
  
"Highly unlikely, I'm willing to bet there is something we don't about" Carrington said. His glance turned to Sean. "If you are up to it, you can go in alone. Grimshaw may be right and they may have run out of fuel which would make it really easy to capture Cassandra with or without Adrian around, however it's unlikely. Of course since the pair of you work well, when Jonathan comes in I'll immediately send him in to back you up" Carrington said  
  
"Okay, but are you sure this is a good idea?" Sean asked   
  
"You don't want to do this?" Carrington said  
  
"No, I do… but I can't help but feel they are trying to lure us there" Sean said  
  
"It seems it's obviously a trap, but you know that so you have the advantage" Carrington replied  
  
"Okay… so what's your plan?" Sean asked  
  
Carrington thought for a moment.  
  
"We will take you above the area and you will jump by parachute. If it is in the unlikely case of running out of fuel then as I said it will be simple to just capture Cassandra since you will have the advantage of surprise" Carrington said   
  
"Of course that's not going to happen and we both know that, so let's get to the next part" Sean replied   
  
"Very well… report to us whatever is nearby the boat. According to the world map they appear to be sitting in the middle of the ocean. All we can tell you is wait and see and report to us what's going on" Carrington said  
  
Sean nodded as Carrington took him down to the hangar where the jumpship was already waiting for him again. The jumpship took him high over the Atlantic Ocean, due to the new technology Sean would be able to land very accurately on the target Carrington had instructed him to. It was raining heavily and the darkness of the night didn't make it any easier. Sean gave a deep breath as he jumped out and fell quite some distance before pulling the cord as the parachute came out and Sean lowered towards the ship. He put on his night vision as he came closer to the ground and saw it clearly and landed on it with no problem. Pulling out his Falcon 2 he scouted the ship but nobody was inside at all. Whatever Adrian and Cassandra were loading seemed to be gone as well. The ship was docked to an island and all Sean could see was the entrance to a cave.   
  
"Lomberson to Carrington, I've landed safely, the ship has docked to an island but all I can see is the entrance to this cave. The ship is obviously deserted" Sean said  
  
"I think I got that, I can't hear you too well over the rain" Carrington said  
  
"Go in then?" Sean asked  
  
"Yes" Carrington replied  
  
Sean went into the cave, but it wasn't a cave at all it was a tunnel, it lead back outside. Suddenly though the temperature seemed to drop, Sean zipped up his jacket, but it was cold enough for Sean to see his own breath. As he stepped closer he saw in the distance another cave. However he was distracted by a similar sounding roar. Lights came on and Sean took off his night vision and saw 2 Skedar with the human/skedar that was Mr. Blonde before him, there was a colder look to Mr. Blonde then other human/skedar. The lights were hanging from poles that were coming from the ocean, as Sean looked around he saw what he appeared to be standing on was a walkway with the water on both sides.   
  
"He's the marked one. Kill him" Mr. Blonde instructed as he watched from a distance.   
  
Sean backed away slowly and drew his Falcon 2, and fired it a few times at one of the Skedar who charged at him but was beaten down. The other Skedar got closer and made a dive but he missed the dive and was killed. Sean turned to face Mr. Blonde but he had vanished. There was yet another cave in front of him.  
  
"What's happening?" Carrington asked  
  
"Nothing much there is just 3 Skedar, 2 standard Skedar and 1 Human/Skedar who got away, however it is really quite cold here. It was strange one minute it was just a normal temperature like neither hot nor cold and now suddenly it's freezing, I can see my own breath, just to give you an idea" Sean said "Also the human/Skedar said he as in meaning me is the marked one " Sean finished. Carrington didn't respond; Sean knew this meant Carrington was thinking.   
  
"Then it's obviously a trap. However the sudden temperature change concerns me" Carrington said  
  
"Go on?" Sean asked. He knew that what Mr. Blonde had meant was that he was marked for death by the Skedar King, it didn't concern him though. There were only 3 Maians on this list and all of them were still alive.   
  
"Seems like you have to. It's too risky to wait around" Carrington replied  
  
"Understood" Sean replied as he continued to head for the cave and again it was a tunnel Mr. Blonde stood in front of him with 3 Skedar. It was still freezing cold and raining heavily.   
  
Mr. Blonde again walked off and the 3 Skedar jumped at Sean in a fanatical rage but as a result they hit each other and stood up and Sean shot them to pieces from a distance. Reloading his Falcon 2 scope and brushing his wet hair out of eyes he moved on to yet another cave. How big is this island, Sean thought to himself.   
  
Yet again the same process repeated. Mr. Blonde looked towards Sean; he didn't appear to have any Skedar nearby.  
  
"Persistent aren't you" Mr. Blonde said and backed away once again, Sean fired but there was something in between him and Mr. Blonde. Another Skedar appeared from out of nowhere. This one was armed though and he shot his Mauler but Sean was far too quick nailing him in the head 3 times and he staggered a bit before Sean finished the job. However in the fight, Mr. Blonde yet again had disappeared.   
  
Sean continued to walk however the pattern was not to repeat itself again. The cave seemed to end. Puzzled Sean walked to end of the cave but a hole came underneath him and he fell into the water and it was moving at a fast current. Forced to put his head underneath to avoid the rocks above him, he discovered that he could breathe underwater; the water appeared to look different.   
  
Trying not to think about it too much he continued to let the current move him while underwater. Eventually the current stopped and there were various passage ways. Sean just picked one and continued to swim in that direction, it seemed to go on forever. It then suddenly hit him that this was a maze.   
  
Finding his way back to where the current was pushing into the maze he tried to work out the way, if there was a way out. There had to be, if this was a trap and they wanted him dead he should have drowned already. The amount of thoughts and possibilities not only of the maze but what this trap was about seemed endless but eventually he found his way to some kind of strange portal. Knowing that this was probably the way out he went into it. Going through it he appeared on the other side, he was back outside. Although the rain was still falling and it was still freezing cold he wasn't soaked at all by the underwater swimming until the new rainwater hit him.   
  
"Sean? Sean? What's happening" Carrington came through  
  
"I have no idea, I was swept into this strange water way but I didn't need to come up for air. I got pushed into this underwater maze and found this portal and I don't know what's going on" Sean said  
  
"How's this communication working then?" Carrington asked puzzled  
  
"This is getting stranger by the second" Sean replied  
  
"Indeed… well you've come this far" Carrington said  
  
Sean tested his weapon, it worked as well. Light was covering the path in front of him it was a circular path with a big gap in the middle with water. Sean walked around the path and came to yet another cave, and was much more careful this time but he didn't need to be. It seemed to be an actual cave this time and he walked down a slight hill and then he was in a huge area.   
  
"Lomberson to Carrington" Sean said  
  
No reply… they must have jammed him, judging by the sound on the other end.   
  
The cave walls were far apart but there was still a top to the cave. A large metal machine stood in the middle, there were numerous human/Skedar and a few dataDyne people working with machines and moving stuff and appeared to be building the machine. He saw his father and Mr. Blonde talking, they turned around there was no where to hide.   
  
"Ah I must admit you never cease to surprise me" Adrian said  
  
Sean remained silent holding his Falcon to his father even though he was outnumbered 50 to 1.   
  
"Come now, you didn't think we'd let you get too far now did you?" Adrian replied  
  
"Since the boy is here, we shall do the typical Skedar tradition. Let him fight for his life, not that it will do much good. One on one" Mr. Blonde said. A lot of the Skedar changed into their true dinosaur like form.   
  
"Yes, I'd like to really see what he is capable of" Adrian said  
  
"Why did you do this? Just tell me that" Sean asked  
  
"It's a fair question, however why do you bother stalling, nobody can save you. It's rather quite simple, Carrington continually infuriated me with all this nonsense about keeping the Maians and Skedar a secret from even his best agents like your mother and I. He continually covered it up with some other stuff that we both knew was not the truth. Even missions that were helping the Maians in one way or another such as protecting that very weapon you hold at me we still weren't told the true purpose of missions, this made work very difficult and I never understood what was going on around me, what the purpose of these missions were. The Skedar came when I was alone after work, although I was not to know they were Skedar until they showed me their true form. They told me everything, the truth, the whys and the power they had. They said if you help us with our problem we'll help you with yours, and I've never turned back since" Adrian said  
  
"So, Carrington doesn't tell you everything that's going on and you start crying about it, is that it?" Sean said  
  
"I wouldn't put it quite like that, but pretty much yes" Adrian replied  
  
"But, how? I saw your body in multiple pieces?" Sean asked remembering what he saw that night  
  
"Ah, a simple replacement tactic, the Skedar cloned me prior to the attack and I escaped out the window and we placed the clone inside, if your mother asked it some deep questions about our past missions and other stuff he would not be able to answer her. Of course your mother wasn't as fortunate, she was beautifully slaughtered by such a wonderful creature" Adrian said trying to find a comment that would hurt Sean.   
  
"Creatures that chicken out of wars purely because they are afraid of getting slaughtered" Sean said, Adrian looked caught off guard with the speed of which Sean replied. A lot of the Skedar roared loudly in anger, Mr. Blonde raised his hand to calm them.   
  
"Enough chatter… start fighting boy!" Mr. Blonde said also seemingly angered by Sean's remark.   
  
The first Skedar charged at Sean, he continually retreat and fired on the Skedar and as soon as the first one dropped and new one jumped into the battle. Eventually Sean backed up until he was outside again with the circular room. Mr. Blonde, Adrian and the Skedar followed as Sean finished the second contender, he looked inside his Falcon 2 but it was out of ammo, there was no way he would be able to take on any more Skedar hand to hand. He needed a new tactic.   
  
"Wait…" Adrian put up his hand  
  
"We are just getting started… what do you mean wait" Mr. Blonde replied  
  
"You are underestimating him, let me take him" Adrian said handing his pistol to Mr. Blonde, from the distance Sean figured it was a MagSec3. Knowing his father it probably was. He used to use the Magsec2 according to his profile.   
  
Mr. Blonde thought for a moment.   
  
"Fine it's your life do what you want" Mr. Blonde said as he handed Adrian's pistol to another Skedar. Adrian stood on the other side of the circle and looked at his son. Sean returned the glance knowing his weapon wouldn't be much use as his father could probably use it against him if he got hold of it since he held ammo for his pistol. He threw it behind him near the portal where it would be impossible to reach in the heat of combat.   
  
Adrian ran around the circle as he went into a running high kick, Sean grabbed Adrian's leg and he threw him over his shoulder. Adrian quickly recovered and caught Sean by surprise with an elbow attack to his mouth, Sean staggered backwards as Adrian went for a sweep, however his attack was too slow as Sean jumped over it and kneed him hard, and elbowed him before giving him another punch that knocked him to the ground. Adrian struggled to get up but managed to do so.  
  
"You are good, but I am better and I shall prove it to you" Adrian said as he charged at Sean with a flurry of punches, but all Sean did was back away. Sean tried to catch one of his fists and he did so but Adrian anticipated this and kneed him before head butting Sean to the ground.   
  
"Had enough?" Adrian said   
  
Sean didn't reply as he got from the ground and Adrian threw a punch but Sean grabbed it and Adrian tried the same tactic again however Sean released his grip on Adrian's arm and blocked the force of Adrian's knee catching it and returning an elbow and an uppercut knocking Adrian to the ground however Adrian rolled backwards recovering. However just as Adrian got up once more Sean in his increasing hatred of his father went low into the stomach with a punch, Adrian tried to retaliate with a trip tactic but he missed, Sean continually gave punches to his face and finished off by grabbed the overwhelmed Adrian and throwing him once more. Adrian breathed heavily on the ground as he was clearly in pain. Adrian couldn't get up as Sean took the ammo that would work on his Falcon 2 from his father. He went for his Falcon 2 keeping an eye on Adrian and he came back his gun over him.  
  
"This appears to be the end…" Adrian said gasping for air  
  
"Yup, that's right" Sean replied but just as was about to pull the trigger, Adrian pushed a remote control switch on his wrist. Underneath Sean an electrical shock stunned him and a pole came from the middle of the water and Sean flew right to it by a magnetic reaction of some kind. He dropped his weapon on the ground, and couldn't move off this strange pole he was on.   
  
"You stupid human" Mr. Blonde shouted  
  
"Yeah, he's only young though" Adrian replied picking up Sean's Falcon.   
  
"Not him, you!" Mr. Blonde replied   
  
"What?" Adrian looked surprised  
  
"He must be killed by hand to hand or a weapon and this does not include that cheap little trap, you were beaten and when you are beaten you are killed. He may not be able to kill you, but I can and will" Mr. Blonde drew his Mauler and aimed at Adrian  
  
"You can't kill me, and you know it. Besides we can redo the trail on our planet" Adrian said. Sean looked to Mr. Blonde, he thought for a moment.  
  
"Very well, but give him back his weapon. I will definitely be speaking to the King about this outrageous behaviour. If it were up to me I would shoot you right now, I don't see why you are so useful anymore" Mr. Blonde said walking away back inside to the cave.   
  
Adrian just stood there, eventually he emptied the ammo out of Sean's Falcon 2 and reluctantly passed it to him and Sean caught it and put it away. Sean's back was still stuck to this strange pole.  
  
"You happy with your decision now?" Sean asked  
  
"At least I'm better off then you are" Adrian replied still breathing heavily.  
  
"For how long, you'll probably die before I do" Sean said  
  
Adrian stood silent for a moment.   
  
"If you are trying to get me to help you, don't bother. Tell me this though, how did you become so strong?" Adrian asked  
  
"Constant training, you should know that. I've been training since I was 9 years old. There is no secret behind it. Though how come it is so cold, what evil plan have the Skedar got this time to be thwarted by either us or the Maians" Sean asked  
  
"You won't live to use the information so it doesn't matter, you see we know that this ship of ours we are looking for we've discovered it is underwater, but we need to find out exactly where. That device you saw it has the ability to change the weather. We can cover up our alien ships with heavy rain and move during the night in heavy fog. Nobody will be able to see the tests that we will do to find the location" Adrian replied  
  
"Why are you so concerned about keeping yourself hidden? Why do you care if people on Earth find out about alien life" Sean asked  
  
"We don't but we don't exactly want Carrington or any countries navy on our backs do we" Adrian said  
  
"What's on this ship of yours, what's the big deal?" Sean asked  
  
"I've told you too much as it is. Anyway enjoy the night out, it will be probably the last on Earth you will see" Adrian said   
  
"Let him down off that" Mr. Blonde's voice rung out  
  
"What!? You want me to just let him free as well?" Adrian replied  
  
"I couldn't care less. If he killed you on the way out, I would let him go. Just do it! King's orders" Mr. Blonde said   
  
"Why are you so merciful to one who killed the Prince, yet you treat me like scum" Adrian said as he turned off a switch and Sean landed on a bridge and walked off the centre.   
  
"The King wants him in perfect condition when he fights and he gets to see the true warrior in him. He is to stay around here though" Mr. Blonde said as the middle of the water changed into a small room.  
  
"I can't believe this…" Adrian said shaking his head  
  
"Would you shut up already" Mr. Blonde was beginning to lose his patience with Adrian. "Get in there boy" Mr. Blonde ordered as two Skedar walked Sean into the room but he didn't need to be pushed. It was like a small prison cell, with a small bed.   
  
"Leave him alone, let him get sleep" Mr. Blonde said  
  
"You are going to lose a load of Skedar if he is in good shape" Adrian said  
  
"Yes but they are all glad to die, the one who kills him will receive such honours from the King that is more then worth risking death" Mr. Blonde replied  
  
"Ridiculous, why can't we just kill him now" Adrian moaned  
  
"Right! One more word out of you and I will get your son to use you as target practice" Mr. Blonde shouted losing his patience.   
  
Adrian remained silent as the door on the small room closed and Sean could clearly see out as the two walked back in the cave with the other Skedar. Sean went to lie down on the bed and started to take off his jacket as it was soaking wet, but after water starting falling through the roof he decided against it, the insides would stay dry at least keeping him slightly warmer then normal, he thanked Natasha again for her brilliance wishing she were still alive to get him out of here.   
  
Chattering his teeth from the cold, Sean breathed on his hands despite the coldness on his breath and rubbed them together and he huddled himself against the wall in a vain effort to keep warm. He knew he couldn't resist sleep, it wouldn't do much good not to sleep as he would probably sleep eventually anyway and end up on a mysterious Skedar planet. Eventually Sean drifting off listening to the chattering of his teeth and the falling rain. 


	15. Ninth mission part 2: Further mystery on...

Cristalina: Adrian is a little like Terrence but I had to have another annoying character somewhere. Everybody thinks they aren't good at writing action, but it just seems to flow. I sometimes think people won't like it but you guys seem to.   
  
Spider-bear: I'm glad you still like it, you don't have to say anything helpful/intelligent just let me know you are still interested like that.   
  
3 chapters to go. I've already got some ideas for extra chapters (like extra missions).   
  
Jonathan was sleeping peacefully until his communication device was going off. What could they possibly want, thought Jonathan as he rolled over trying to pick it up.  
  
"Jonathan here" Jonathan said sleepily, looking over at the clock 6.30 am, ah well only cheated out of half an hour of sleep he thought to himself.   
  
"Get down here right away Jon, I'll explain later" Carrington said   
  
Jonathan got out of bed and did the usual morning routine and drove to the Institute. On arriving he headed straight to Carrington's office.   
  
"Hello Jonathan, sit down" Carrington said   
  
"What's happening?" Jonathan asked taking a seat as Carrington instructed.  
  
"We traced that ship down, it docked on a mysterious island. As Sean was here we sent him in immediately to investigate, suddenly though we were cut off by what we suspect is ECM jamming. Anyway that was 6 hours ago, the last we heard from him he had went though a strange underwater section yet all his stuff was still working and the water seemed to be breathable. It is a very strange place; it not only seems to rain heavily constantly Sean also reported that it was unusually cold. Obviously we are greatly concerned and do not if he still alive but of course we are expecting the worst. He also reported that the Skedar have marked him for death." Carrington explained  
  
Jonathan thought for a moment "What do you mean by the Skedar have him marked for death" Jonathan asked, understanding what Carrington had said but wanted to know the specifics of the system.  
  
"Ah, the Skedar have a list of living beings they wish to kill, if they are killed the Skedar King supposedly pays the Skedar who killed them great honours and dramatic improvement in rank but nobody on this list has died yet. There are 4 on this list, 3 Maians and 1 human who is obviously Sean. To get on this list you need to be a great threat to the Skedar, in Sean's case he killed the Skedar prince which means he knows how to kill the King and also because he killed the prince the King wants revenge" Carrington said  
  
"And the other 3?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Elvis is one for being the top Maian protector, Bea Tles is another for basically doing the same thing I am and the head Maian tactician for his work in the tactics used to beat the Skedar" Carrington explained  
  
"Right, you can explain to me later how you know who's the Skedar hit list" Jonathan said  
  
"It's quite simple. The Maians have their spies, so naturally that's how Sean and I found out" Carrington said  
  
"What about the coldness what do you think about that?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Looking at its location there is something very wrong with that. My guess is they have some kind of weather control however they made that, you never know with the Skedar" Carrington said   
  
"When on the island what then?" Jonathan asked   
  
"Find out whether Sean is alive or not, what's going on down there and destroy the island. Since it's not marked on a map, it seems to have been built somehow" Carrington said  
  
Within a few minutes Jonathan was ready, getting onto the jumpship and it reached the island about an hour later. Still raining heavily, Jonathan was a little more prepared then Sean was wearing warmer clothing. Although it didn't seem very cold at all yet.   
  
"This time we won't talk unless we really need to because of interception issues. Good luck Jonathan, Carrington out" Carrington said  
  
Jumping out of the jumpship he used his parachute and landed perfectly on the island. He saw a cave in front of him and entered but it took a dense forest, the rain still fell through the trees. Like Sean he felt the sudden cold although the light of day could be only just seen in this forest making it a bit difficult for Jonathan to work his way though. Finally he came to this cave.   
  
"Whew, how did he do that in the dark?" Jonathan asked himself running his hands through his hair.  
  
"Perhaps because he didn't" Another voice replied   
  
"Huh?!" Jonathan drew his Magnum and searched for the source of the voice  
  
"Jon, relax its Sean" Sean said  
  
"Where are you?" Jonathan said not putting his Magnum away  
  
"Here" Sean stepped out  
  
"Hey I'm glad to see you alive again" Jonathan said  
  
"I'm glad to see me alive again too" Sean replied giving a slight smile  
  
"What happened?" Jonathan asked  
  
"I can't tell you…" Sean said  
  
"What do you mean by that…" but suddenly Jonathan realised Sean was backing away.   
  
"Nothing… got anybody else coming here?" Sean asked  
  
"No, why?" Jonathan replied  
  
"Excellent…" Sean said  
  
"What?" Jonathan said surprised  
  
"Heh, it will just be easier…" Sean said, he was very out of character and by now it was more than obvious. "Easier to kill you!" Sean said drawing his Falcon 2  
  
Jonathan had no time to reply as Sean fired his weapon and Jonathan drew his and hid behind a rock as Sean fired multiple times. He heard him reload and then Jonathan jumped out and shot him in the leg to stun him with his Magnum. He fell over but when he did he started changing.   
  
"What the?" Jonathan said  
  
"Stupid fool…" the mysterious form said before completely changing into a Skedar.   
  
"What are you!?" Jonathan asked but the form didn't reply as it just fell dead.  
  
Jonathan knew Carrington would want to know of this development,   
  
"Dark to Carrington" Jonathan said  
  
"Anything wrong?" Carrington asked  
  
"I just ran into Sean, but he drew his weapon and tried to kill me, I shot him and he or it I guess, transformed into a Skedar" Jonathan said  
  
"It's probably a clone Jonathan, did he fade completely?" Carrington asked  
  
Jonathan looked where the dead Skedar was, there was nothing there.   
  
"Yes, but how?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Skedar clones according to the Maians fade soon after being shot. Also they are far less intelligent then the original and lack skills in combat, however the Skedar are supposedly working on ways of removing these flaws" Carrington explained  
  
"How many clones could there be?" Jonathan asked  
  
"That must be the only one; the Skedar would only be able to clone him once in this time period" Carrington said "There is one certain way of knowing if it is the real Sean. Ask him what's the second password to the high level profiles, only three people know that and they are you, Sean and myself" Carrington said  
  
"Not even Grimshaw knows?" Jonathan asked  
  
"It's the one of the few things on our computers he doesn't know. I have my ways of protecting the passwords, not even Grimshaw can crack them" Carrington laughed   
  
"Anyway, I came through this forest I ran into the Sean clone in this cave. Like Sean found it, it is freezing here" Jonathan said  
  
"A forest? Sean said that there was a pathway and he faced that strange Skedar who is always in human form and 2 normal Skedar. This place seems to change all the time, be on guard Jonathan" Carrington said  
  
"Understood" Jonathan said putting his communication away.  
  
Jonathan continued to walk and saw…  
  
"Another forest, great" Jonathan said to himself  
  
This time it wasn't as dense, as Jonathan worked his way through but suddenly he was ambushed by 2 Skedar. Stepping back out of surprise he walked backwards and tried to shot them. One them roared and fell over the other charged at him but Jonathan remembered he was a bit slower and although he wasn't being outrun by the Skedar he wasn't making much ground either. Turning around suddenly and firing it caught the chasing Skedar by surprise as it staggered backwards, Jonathan shot it again and it fell over. He reloaded and walked on.  
  
"Just like the one before you, you are highly persistent" Mr. Blonde said standing with 3 Skedar  
  
"What did you do with him?" Jonathan asked not really expecting an answer  
  
As expected Mr. Blonde did not answer and walked off as the 3 Skedar advanced and fired their Maulers but because of the trees, Jonathan could use them as cover as he retreated and tried to pick off the chasing Skedar. However he shot one and then another that were charging at him but he lost the third one until he heard it creeping behind him. Turning around Jonathan shot him down.  
  
"Got ya!" Jonathan said as the Skedar fell to the ground dead.   
  
Jonathan gave a deep sigh. Although it was a very small thing he could see his own breath, as a child he got really amused by it. Putting his mind back to the mission he went on and came to yet another cave. At the end of there was something amazing. Walls made of ice everywhere, it seemed really solid ice. It was a fantastic sight; it must have taken ages to build. Huddling himself up a little he walked through, but when Jonathan was walking through it he came back to where he started. There were many turns; he figured it was a maze. Making it a lot easier for himself he shot the walls to make a marking so it would be easier to find his way around.   
  
Finally finding the exit he moved onto yet another forest. As he walked through suddenly two Skedar ambushed him. He managed to get the first one before it got too close but the second one knocked Jon to the ground. He tried to push it away but it was no use. It moved into to bite him until it suddenly weakened and dropped dead immediately.   
  
"Jonathan you alright!" A voice said. Jonathan stood up and saw Sean holding his Falcon 2 scope but he wasn't so sure if it was the real deal.  
  
"What's the second password to the high level profiles" Jonathan asked immediately  
  
"Well that's a nice way to say hello. I'm fine thanks" Sean replied sarcastically  
  
"I'm serious, tell me the password, I want to see if it's actually you" Jonathan said drawing his magnum.   
  
"Hey take it easy, its Grimshaw is a real loser. Without the spaces." Sean said  
  
"Oh it really is you. We all thought you were…" Jonathan started and put away his magnum.   
  
"Dead? Yeah I had a very close call. I was captured but I got out" Sean said  
  
"How?" Jonathan asked  
  
"I'll tell you later, now isn't the time or the place" Sean replied  
  
"Yeah, I ran into a clone of you already. That's why I asked you a question only you would know" Jonathan said  
  
"Right well that explains that then" Sean said  
  
"Yeah, anyway what is going on?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Well I assume they've just worked out I'm not there anymore and start coming after me. Basically the Skedar have this device that gives them control of the weather, but it isn't complete yet however it's enough to give this effect. Adrian said something about them doing tests to find the ship they lost. I've also figured this island has some kind of portal system; it changes the appearance of the island. This forest definitely wasn't here before, come on we've got to work out a way to destroy this place" Sean said  
  
"I've got explosives" Jonathan said pulling out a few charges, they were only tiny but their effect was devastating.   
  
"Well you really did come prepared didn't you, maybe I should have waited" Sean said with a small chuckle.   
  
"Only because of what you had told Carrington. Anyway let's move" Jonathan said as the two continued through the forest. Soon they came to a portal.  
  
"This thing will take us to the main area where the machine is held, always. The Skedar are probably searching for me everywhere so we may have to fight as soon as we go through here" Sean said  
  
"Okay. There is no other way?" Jonathan asked  
  
"No, pretty sure of that" Sean replied.   
  
Both stepped through at the same time, as Sean had predicted three Skedar surrounded them, however Jonathan and Sean were both ready and charged and them and fired their weapons making them drop. They were in the main area where Sean and Adrian fought, on the floor they noticed that all of the Skedar were holding shields that were switched off.   
  
"Pretty neat, we have to throw one away though so no one else picks it up" Sean said  
  
"Yeah ah well" Jonathan said activating his shield and passed one to Sean and threw the other one into the water. Both activated the shields and immediately the red barrier flickered around the both of them.  
  
Heading into the cave on the other side they saw the similar machine but there was nobody anywhere. The tall metal machine was up on a high level then the entrance of the cave. Climbing the stairs they approached the machine their weapons drawn out but it the area appeared deserted. There were two paths, one said control room the other was unmarked. The path leading to the control room seemed to be made of metal and headed upwards but the other path seemed to be made of rock like the rest of the cave and was heading downwards.   
  
"It looks like they have got some way to go on this yet" Sean said noticing the large amounts of material on the ground below them  
  
"Yup, look there is even a hole in the roof…" Jonathan noticed the rain fall continuing to fall from the hole.   
  
"I don't think it is a good idea to blow this up, we don't know what's around" Sean said knocking at the machine  
  
"I agree let's split. I'll check out this supposed control room. You go down into that cave looking thing, they wouldn't have that path for no reason at all" Jonathan reloaded his Magnum just to be sure.  
  
"Alright, I can contact you if I find anything" Sean said running down the other path  
  
"Okay good luck" Jonathan replied  
  
Jonathan took off and ran through the entrance. He came to this room with a few computers, there was a dataDyne technician.   
  
"Hands up! What's going on here" Jonathan demanded but the technician went for the alarm  
  
"Oh no, not so fast" Jonathan fired missing on purpose and the technician stopped.   
  
"Speak up! What's going on!?" Jonathan said but the technician remained silent.  
  
"Ah perfect a map" Jonathan spotted a map on the wall and the technician tried to attack but Jonathan saw it from a mile away and hit him hard with the Magnum  
  
Jonathan sighed "Why couldn't the non-combatants rule be kill anybody who tries to interfere with the success of the mission" Jonathan grumbled as he looked at the map.  
  
The map showed only the control room side of the area. It was like a tower, with 5 floors, at the very top was a control system, the perfect place for an explosive Jonathan thought to himself smiling. Going through the next room there were 5 dataDyne guards.   
  
"Get him!" One of them shouted and their CMP150's fired upon Jonathan however they didn't seem to know about the lock on feature as Jonathan picked two of them off before he hid behind the wall to reload. A bit more gunfire was heard before he heard the footsteps of one of them and Jonathan suddenly stepped out and blasted him backwards catching his weapon.  
  
"You can't escape!' Another shouted, and Jonathan almost wanted to cough and say some smart remark since he knew it was all talk. Jonathan shot down the next one using the lock on, the final guard went for the alarm.  
  
"Oh no, your buddy tried that already" Jonathan smiled as he took the guard down before he even took two steps.   
  
Taking the ammo from the guards to give him more than enough for the CMP150 he went on to the stairs. A guard was walking on them and he was shot down. Jonathan went to the fifth floor but the door was locked, same for the fourth, and the third.   
  
"Damn this better open" Jonathan said to himself running to the second floor and trying to open the door but it wouldn't budge. Just then on the guard he shot he noticed something, a key. Perfect he thought. Trying from the fifth floor down again nothing seemed to work except the second floor.  
  
"Better then nothing I guess" Jonathan said as he continued to look for guards.  
  
Meanwhile…  
  
Sean was heading down the rocky cave, when he got to the end there was a path. It was a long path made by dark yellow bricks seemingly placed hand by hand and all around there was murky looking water around. In the centre the path was a donut like circle with murky water in the middle. This looked very much like the outside area where he had been kept prisoner but the water looked a lot cleaner outside. As he stepped closer he noticed something in the distance, steps leading to what looked to be a Shrine. Why would a Shrine be placed here? Sean thought to himself as he walked closer, but as he stepped closer something appeared in front of him above the murky water in the middle of the circle. It was Adrian; he was placed on the other side of the circle.  
  
"You really do never cease to surprise me. How did you escape?" Adrian asked  
  
"The motivation to fight got me out" Sean said and went to shoot Adrian but he dodged.  
  
"Hasty aren't we, you should have killed me when you had the chance" Adrian replied  
  
"You know I would have, that's why you used that device, I beat you before and I can beat you again" Sean reloaded his Falcon 2  
  
"Of course, if we were to fight fair, but unlike most Skedar I do not fight fair" Adrian said  
  
"Then I guess it's not long before they kill you. Even I know that the Skedar like to test the strength of anything in fair combat, even their deadliest enemies" Sean said   
  
"You do know a lot then. I guess you heard Blondie, he went ballistic because I didn't obey the duelling 'honour code' who cares when you can win the match" Adrian said   
  
"You are really pathetic, even for a Skedar" Sean pointed his Falcon towards Adrian.   
  
"I shall show you how powerful I really am. You shall beg for mercy by the time I am through with you. Before we begin this battle, why do you show me no mercy even though I am your father, no emotion, no tears, no nothing. I'm almost disappointed" Adrian said   
  
"In time it will come. Unfortunately for you it will be too late" Sean knew Adrian was trying to make Sean hesitate in battle but he wasn't going to fall for it, he had to do this with no second thoughts.   
  
"We'll see" Adrian replied "let me show you the true power of the Skedar"   
  
Adrian began to transform into a rather large Skedar, Sean stepped back slightly but stood his ground trying not to look intimidated. The Skedar roared loudly and the battle begun. 


	16. Ninth mission part 3: Destruction of the...

Spider-bear: Yes, I try to make you people laugh sometimes. I hope my next humour fic that I told you will about it will happen more often.   
  
Adrian jumped up and shook the ground as Sean fired. Adrian had a shield though which repelled the shots, he returned fire with the Mauler but only one shot hit but the rest Sean dodged as both exchanged fire. Adrian started heading backwards up the stairs and Sean followed firing and reloading hitting him a few times but suddenly Sean realised it wasn't a Shrine that was on top of the stairs. It was a place that held weapons. Adrian went for a rocket launcher and fired it. Sean dived out of the way of the incoming rocket, and just saw another coming and was just about to roll but the ground shook in an unusual way lifting the ground up.  
  
"Huh?" Sean said from the ground as the ground rose to meet Adrian's level and wet stones were raised from the murky water. Some were raised high enough to be used as walls against Adrian's attacks.   
  
Before he could take a look around another rocket was fired, but however Sean saw it and moved out of the way and fired a few rounds off at Adrian, who ducked behind one of the weapons holdings and threw the rocket launcher away. He then came out with a strange metal weapon that looked like a fan. Sean quickly discovered it was not a fan but a weapon. Taking cover Adrian fired this strange weapon and it fired really quickly but it did no good as Sean was hiding. Adrian suddenly transformed back into a human.  
  
"How do you like that? Now you know why the Skedar are superior, this Reaper is quite an awesome weapon" Adrian said but Sean jumped out and fired and Adrian fired again but forgot he was human and it shook violently and it didn't even hit Sean who was firing back, Adrian's shield was yellow but Sean had only taken a few hits.   
  
"Some weapon, didn't you Skedar know the weapon actually has to hit the target" Sean taunted as he reloaded  
  
"Indeed, but like a lot of things humans are far too weak to control it" Adrian replied changing once more into a Skedar and reloaded the Reaper and fired it and Sean took a few hits on his shield and ducked for cover again. Adrian took out another rocket launcher but this one looked different, Sean jumped out as he heard the Reaper seem to stop and fired as Adrian swapped weapons and changed into human form.   
  
"See how you like this!" Adrian said pulling on the trigger of the rocket launcher  
  
He fired the rocket launcher and it seemed to be controlled by Adrian himself as it swerved in and out the walls. Sean tried to back away but the rocket was closing in, however he ran around a wall looking like he would go for cover but he didn't, instead he was heading straight for Adrian by going around the other side of the walls and the rocket continued to chase, having nothing for it, Sean charged at Adrian firing who was surprised and the rocket came right at him. Sean jumped over Adrian and the rocket came right at Adrian.  
  
Adrian swore loudly as he realised the rocket was heading his way he dived out of the path as the rocket exploded on the roof of where the weapons were being held and it sent the structure crushing down. Adrian turned to see if the rubble had crushed Sean but he immediately rose up from the ground. Adrian fired once more at Sean using his Mauler but Sean used some of the structure as cover from Adrian's attack but then his gun clicked and Adrian swore to himself and threw it backwards. Adrian's shield was gone, from taking so much damage from Sean's shots, but Sean's was dark green and nearly gone because of the explosion near by. Adrian drew his rocket launcher again and fired where Sean was forcing him to come out of hiding, the explosion however caused Sean to drop his weapon and the ground underneath them to shake…  
  
Jonathan was continuing to work his way up the tower. Still on the second floor, Jonathan looked around for somebody with a key. That had to be the way up, he thought to himself. As he checked the doorways one guard suddenly jumped out and tried to punch but Jonathan shot him down before he even got in range. However another rushed for the alarm and Jonathan shot him, but his dead body fell on the alarm.  
  
"Ah darn it!" Jonathan said as the alarms sounded.   
  
Several guards came running where the alarm was sounded and saw the dead body and started scouting. Knowing how to use the CMP150 was a big advantage to Jonathan as the guards despite their numbers were been mowed down easily by the accuracy of the weapon, no matter what they tried there were easily beaten.  
  
Eventually Jonathan found the alarm and shut it off, but he knew that probably wouldn't be enough. He found the third floor key sitting on a table where the guards had rushed in from, conveniently enough it was even writing on a tag on the key third floor.   
  
"I bet this opens the third floor" Jonathan said to himself sarcastically.   
  
"Well duh…" A guard said who had been shot down  
  
"You need to get a sense of humour, and you also need to know when to shut up" Jonathan replied "Oh yeah and get some damned skill" Jonathan added before knocking the guard out with the Magnum.   
  
Jonathan continued up the tower and repeated the process for the above floors clearing out all the guards and finding the key. On floor 5 he was more careful as it was probably better guarded. There was a door marked control room but predictably it was locked, and predictably enough there was a guard around with the key. Jonathan carefully opened the door and looked inside. There were many computer consoles. Mr. Blonde and Cassandra were talking as Jonathan took cover behind a console.   
  
"I still don't understand how this will help you find your ship" Cassandra said looking outside the window  
  
"It's simple. We want to use our ships and do tests, but we don't want the authorities able to see us, that will draw much unwanted attention" Mr. Blonde replied  
  
"I see, so you simply use effects like this rain and fog and other stuff to make it impossible for others to see?" Cassandra asked  
  
"Correct. Water is 70 percent of your planet so it won't exactly be easy, but I guess eliminating 30 percent of your planet is better than nothing at all" Mr. Blonde replied  
  
"Miss De Vries, we've got word of an intruder here. Many guards on this floor are already dead" somebody joined the conversation; Jonathan couldn't see who it was.  
  
"Then he can't be far away, find him!" Cassandra replied  
  
"Yes Miss De Vries" the voice replied  
  
Jonathan took his opportunity and stood up firing at the guard but what Jonathan didn't know was there were 2 others. They fired at Jonathan who ducked behind the computer console. Jonathan jumped out once more and took them down, however Mr. Blonde and Cassandra had disappeared, Jonathan threw a charge in the middle of the room and left. He saw Cassandra and Mr. Blonde running down another flight of stairs he chased them and fired but they were too far away. Eventually he came to another cave similar to the one at dataDyne, they were getting on the boat and Mr. Blonde suddenly threw a grenade but Jonathan saw it and stopped himself just before it exploded. Unfortunately this gave Mr. Blonde and Cassandra an opportunity to escape as Jonathan fired pointlessly at the boat.  
  
"Dark to Carrington" Jonathan said  
  
"Carrington here" Carrington came in about two seconds later  
  
"That blonde guy and Cassandra got away again. I left a charge in the main control room, if I only I had been my normal self I would have caught them. Anyway Sean and I hopefully will be at the drop off point in 10 minutes" Jonathan said  
  
"Okay, I'll ask for what happened later. Jumpship should be there in 10 minutes" Carrington replied  
  
Should be? Jonathan thought to himself, it has to be otherwise we are dead…  
  
As the ground shook around Sean and Adrian it collapsed sending both of them down into the water but the water wasn't calm like before it seemed to be flowing as both of them went down the water having no choice but to follow where ever it would lead them. Suddenly a platform came into view and both were flung to it and grabbed onto it with the fingertips. As Sean looked behind him it seemed the water flowed into what looked like a bottomless pit. He also noticed that the water seemed to be cycled back to the top as it was stopped by a platform of some kind causing the water to flow the other way. He climbed up the platform and Adrian did as well. Suddenly an object came on to the platform. Sean's dropped Falcon 2. Both dived for it, but Adrian got it and fired once but it only depleted Sean's shield to nothing and Sean kicked the weapon out of his hands sending it a fair distance. The platform was round and it had no barriers so there was nothing stopping them from falling if they got too close to the edge.   
  
Sean and Adrian circled each other.  
  
"It comes to this, although this time I have an advantage" Adrian said as he tried to become a Skedar but it wouldn't work.  
  
"So much for that" Sean went for his weapon but Adrian blocked him off and elbowed him.  
  
He staggered backwards and tripped him in return however Adrian was quick to get up. He dived for the weapon again. Adrian picked it up and Sean tried to get it out of his hands, and Adrian fired pointlessly as Sean eventually sent the weapon flying but it was still on the platform. He elbowed Adrian but he blocked the blow and returned with a low punch, Sean grabbed it and threw Adrian over his shoulder, but as Sean went for the weapon Adrian tripped him up by grabbing his foot. Sean rolled and stood against Adrian once more and gave a low kick trying to trip him so he would have time to get the weapon, Adrian parried the blow and used the back of his fist to hit Sean hard in the face and then head butted him sending him to the ground.   
  
"This is mine now" Adrian said running over the weapon, Sean tried to get up but it was no use.   
  
"You were a good match, now it is the end" Adrian said and Sean just stood there.  
  
Adrian went to pull the trigger but nothing happened! It just clicked, it was out of ammo. Sean took advantage of Adrian's surprise and did a jump kick sending the weapon out of Adrian's hands as he went over the edge.  
  
"Nooooooooo!" Adrian shouted as he fell.  
  
Sean breathed heavily as he picked up his weapon.  
  
"I did it…" Sean breathed in and out. He looked around to find a way out, he saw a portal in the distance which he could jump to if he made an effort. He was about to take the jump when something hit him from behind knocking him down. It was Adrian flying in the air.  
  
"You forgot about my jetpack as I predicted you would" Adrian said as he flew through the air. The jetpack seemed to be invisible until it was required.  
  
Sean looked up to see him flying around and suddenly he made a dive for him. Rolling out of the way he just missed Adrian sudden diving attack.  
  
"I may surprise you, but you have no surprises left for me" Adrian replied laughing continuing to float over the edge and took another dive across the area. There was no way Sean could counterattack, and Adrian would never give him chance to reload his Falcon.   
  
Adrian continued to dive on Sean, he grew tired he couldn't keep dodging Adrian was just too quick. He had to think of something. Then a possible tactic he could use.   
  
"You can't avoid me forever" Adrian said and begun to go into another dive.  
  
Sean was ready for it and took his Falcon and threw it hard at Adrian who dived and didn't see the weapon coming. Because of the jetpack the impact of the blow forced him to stagger back further and the jetpack flew off his back and into the wall and blew up. Adrian held on to the edge and climbed on and stood up, but he was dizzy from the impact of Sean's thrown Falcon. He saw him coming but wasn't sure from which direction as Sean went for a high punch, Adrian tried to block but he couldn't see it coming properly so took the blow and staggered backwards. Using this opportunity Sean used his right foot and kicked Adrian in the stomach causing him to fall of the edge but just as he was about to fall Sean made a dive and caught him by the hand.   
  
"What?" Adrian said out of surprise  
  
Sean merely smiled down on his beaten opponent.   
  
"Do you beg for mercy?" Sean asked  
  
"Yes, DON'T do it! Please!" Adrian shouted handing Sean his other hand  
  
"A Skedar begging for mercy, that would immediately get you killed. Skedar never beg for mercy" Sean said ignoring Adrian's other hand  
  
"You would kill your own father?" Adrian said getting desperate   
  
"The father I knew died 9 years ago" Sean replied and let go of Adrian  
  
He screamed as he fell to his doom and it echoed and soundly stopped followed by a loud thud. Sean immediately took the jump into the portal. He ended up back in the room where it went up two paths and Jonathan was running out of the control room path.  
  
"Hey Sean? What happened?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Again long story" Sean replied "Adrian's dead, that's all that matters" Sean replied breathing in and out, he was bleeding quite a bit.  
  
Jonathan nodded "Tough fight huh?" he asked  
  
"Yeah, how did you go?" Sean asked  
  
"I found the main control room, this place is going to blow in 10 minutes, Carrington sent a jumpship for us" Jonathan replied  
  
"Okay, how many charges have you got?" Sean asked as he broke into a run but not a very fast one as he was fairly tired.   
  
"3 more" Jonathan replied  
  
"Leave one here" Sean said as Jonathan threw one in the room  
  
The two continued to run through as they went through the portal leading them to the forest and back through the ice maze which they made through easily and Jonathan left another charge. Coming onto the final part of the island and through both forests they threw another charge. The jumpship was waiting for them on the main island as they got on.   
  
They both breathed in and out as they were out of breath and Sean continued to bleed as he used some of the basic equipment over his blows, but it didn't matter as they watched the island be blown up.   
  
"Mission success?" Carrington asked  
  
"Yes. The Island is destroyed along with their device, Sean is still alive and he's with me now. Adrian was killed as well, as I reported previously Cassandra and the Blonde guy got away" Jonathan said  
  
"Still you dealt with the threats for now. Well done both of you" Carrington said  
  
Jonathan and Sean congratulated each other on another successful mission as the Jumpship continued to head for the Institute. 


	17. Aftermath

Spider-bear: Thanks again…nothing really more to say *smiles*  
  
Chistalina: Don't worry Adrian is NOT coming back. I've used that storyline once already, the story is coming to an end, I'm not about to revive a character to get killed once more.  
  
Here's a very long chapter to finish it off.   
  
Anyway let's move on.   
  
The jumpship landed and the two got off and Carrington greeted them immediately.   
  
"Ah, you always seem to be the one who takes the beatings Sean" Carrington said  
  
"Comes with the job I guess" Sean replied as they walked up to Carrington's office  
  
"Take a seat" Carrington said but neither needed to be told as they sat down out of exhaustion.   
  
"Anyway, I called you in for two reasons. One was to congratulate you" Carrington said  
  
"Second is another assignment?" Sean asked   
  
"In a way, now don't look at me like that" Carrington gave a smile "No it's to tell you that the Maians are ready to accept you to their planet again. I said a while back that two people could go, I know you've already been Jonathan but I'm sure you wouldn't mind a second visit and Sean is really the only other person one I could give this honour to. That is of course you want to do this, because they are picking up Elvis tomorrow and have agreed if we wish to take 2 of you along" Carrington said  
  
"Sure I'll do it" Sean said not noticing any sign of his tiredness because of the opportunity that was presented before him  
  
"Jonathan? What about you? Too exhausted?" Carrington asked  
  
"Of course not, I wasn't there for very long last time" Jonathan said  
  
"Excellent. You guys rest up, be here early tomorrow" Carrington said  
  
"I'll see you here tomorrow then" Sean said as he left  
  
"Bye" Jonathan replied not far behind to leave the room  
  
Jonathan went down to Firing Range to talk to Foster about how stupid the guards were when it came to the CMP150. However he found a familiar face.  
  
"Hey Joanna" Jonathan said  
  
"Hi Jonathan" she replied  
  
"How's it going?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Quite well thanks. I obviously heard about the other place" Joanna said  
  
"These things happen I guess. How's she going Foster?" Jonathan replied wanting to avoid discussion of the Skedar especially with Joanna who was supposed to be totally oblivious to it.   
  
"Excellent as usual, although she has got to stop coming here, doesn't she have a life?" Foster asked  
  
"No, she doesn't" Jonathan laughed  
  
"Hey! Just because I want to get a head start doesn't mean I don't have a life" Joanna retorted   
  
"De Nile, great river in Egypt and also a great excuse to try convince yourself of lies. Come on Jo, it's nothing to be ashamed of I don't have a life either" Jonathan said. Foster gave a chuckle.   
  
"What's the Nile got anything to do with this?" Joanna said   
  
Foster and Jonathan exchanged looks.  
  
"Never mind, when does Carrington think you'll start training?" Jonathan asked  
  
"A few years off, but that's my choice. I want to see the world a little bit more before I put my life into this" Joanna said  
  
"Smart move. You'll be surprised at how much time this takes from you" Jonathan said  
  
"What about Sean though? He started when he was my age, now that's somebody without a life" Joanna said  
  
"There is a special reason for that. Don't tell him I told you this, but his parents were Institute agents, he saw his parents die in front of him and Carrington took him here and basically he was raised here" Jonathan explained, not wanting to tell Joanna about the truth with Adrian.  
  
"How awful, I'm sorry I said that now" Joanna said apologetically   
  
"You weren't to know. He hides it quite well" Jonathan said  
  
"Yeah I was convinced, he seemed so cheerful when I met him" Joanna replied  
  
"Anyway I better get going" Jonathan said  
  
"See you later then" Joanna took her weapon and started another test.  
  
Jonathan left and headed for his car. As he drove through the emptiness around him, Jonathan somebody and as he got closer the figure looked familiar. Jonathan got a look and pulled in front of him and opened the window.   
  
"Hey Sean, you walk home from the Institute every day?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Yeah, it's pretty rough but what choice to do I have" Sean replied with a smile  
  
"Here let me run you down to where you live" Jonathan said  
  
"Are you sure?" Sean asked  
  
"Sure I'm sure just get in already" Jonathan said  
  
Sean went around to the other side and got into the car.  
  
"Thanks Jon" Sean said  
  
"No prob" Jonathan replied as he drove "So Sean where do you live?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Well it's about 30 minutes by foot from the Institute, its straight walking though" Sean said  
  
"How do you do it? You are exhausted by a mission and you walk a further 30 minutes" Jonathan said  
  
"It's not easy, but I wanted something I could call mine. Carrington's villa is great but it just didn't seem right after a while. Although it was easier with the old Institute, I could get a bus to about 5 minutes from home before" Sean replied  
  
"By the way how did you escape?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Well it wasn't hard…" Sean started to tell his story.  
  
Flashback…  
  
Sean woke up from his sleep although it wasn't a very peaceful one; the water was still falling from the roof. He heard the growls of a Skedar standing guard. He needed to work out a way to escape, although it was pretty unlikely. However a thought crossed Sean's mind. He pushed the bed to the door, and then got on top of the bed, and banged loudly against the door with his Falcon 2. Predictably the Skedar guard turned and headed towards the door. On trying to lightly push it open it wouldn't work because the bed was in the way of the door. Using a bit more force the Skedar still couldn't open it. Finally trying a little hard the door burst open and the bed flew to the other side of the room. The Skedar crept in and looked around for Sean. Little did he know that he had hid himself above the Skedar above the door. Lightly landing from his hiding place he dropped, ran and closed the door leaving the Skedar trapped in there.   
  
End Flashback.  
  
"That was rather easy, although how'd you know the Skedar would fall for it" Jonathan asked  
  
"I didn't. You never know anything, but yeah that's how I escaped. Even more foolishly, he left his ammo behind so I loaded my weapon as well" Sean said with a bit of a laugh.  
  
Sean continued to give Jonathan directions to where he lived. Jonathan pulled outside a small house.  
  
"See you tomorrow" Sean said  
  
"Yeah, take care" Jonathan replied as he drove off.   
  
Jonathan continued to drive and soon got home himself. He wasn't around much so the place was usually in good condition since there was little time to mess it up. It was fairly small but Jonathan didn't leave need space. On getting to sleep that night he wondered whether the Maians had negotiated the ceasefire or not yet. Jonathan was exhausted though and fell quickly to sleep.  
  
On driving to the Institute at 6 am to arrive at 7 as Carrington instructed, he noticed something unusual. Dead men, in those white coats the Skedar had while in human form, something was definitely up, as he drove on he noticed a few in the normal form too. He just wondered what was going on and how long this row of bodies was. He begun to hear gun shots and he drove even closer and saw somebody fighting with a Skedar in its normal form at close range. Instinctively Jonathan drew his Magnum and a shot the Skedar and the person who had been fighting was Sean. Jonathan pulled over and Sean ran over exhausted to the other side as Jonathan fired a few shots at the pursuing Skedar killing them, there was also a Skedar ship and it was going into the air in a retreat as Sean got in the car. Sean turned to face Jonathan and if Carrington thought Sean looked beaten up yesterday it was nothing to how he looked now.   
  
"I owe you one… again" Sean breathed in and out. His face was bleeding in 3 separate spots, clearly some of the Skedar had got closer then Sean would have liked. Jonathan also noticed his right arm had some blood as well and his left leg had clearly been attacked as well as his pants leg was torn slightly.   
  
"Never mind that. Dark to Carrington you here me?" Jonathan said through the communicator   
  
Carrington replied about 10 seconds later "What's wrong Jonathan?" Carrington asked  
  
"Sean had been badly injured by a bunch of Skedar, there are heaps of them dead on the road here. I have him now and will be there in 5 minutes" Jonathan said  
  
"We'll be ready for him then" Carrington said  
  
Sean passed out soon after, on arriving at the Institute he was placed in a section of the hangar since the Institute didn't really have anywhere else. Elvis came and worked on Sean's injuries with Maian technology, they would heal and wouldn't affect performance since they weren't as serious as Jonathan's were. After Elvis was finished he woke up.  
  
"Man, what did I do to deserve this?" Sean asked holding his head  
  
"Would being on that list have something to do with it?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Damn Skedar" Sean moaned…   
  
"Our Maian leaders tell me, that as part of the ceasefire agreement that they must give up their chase on you, at first it was get off Earth but we knew there was no way we could check on that unfortunately" Elvis said  
  
"Well I hope it doesn't take too long, I don't know how much longer I can keep alive at this rate" Sean replied  
  
"Don't worry, while you are on the main Maian planet you are entirely safe. The Skedar may not come within a striking distance of the planet. If they come within a certain distance we can question them before they can advance and search the ship if necessary. Until the Skedar agree not to chase you anymore, I suggest for your own safety you stay on the Maian planet" Elvis said  
  
"You mean we are going now?" Sean asked  
  
"We are already heading there" Jonathan said  
  
Sean sat up and took a look around, sure enough they were in space, Elvis was waiting for them at the Institute anyway.  
  
"Why the interest to protect me? I'm grateful for it but doesn't it seem a bit much?" Sean asked  
  
"Not at all. For one you are a human and we want to treat you as one of our own, especially if a political contact between your race and ours is later made, for two you are the only one who possesses the knowledge of how to kill the Skedar King. Which is the exact reason the Maians seek to protect you, and the Skedar seek to kill you as it would be a winning point in the war if we have this knowledge and can use it, however we don't want to fight, we only want peace, but if we need to fight again a successful assassination attempt on the King would end the war decisively" Elvis explained  
  
"So you are basically telling me that I possess the knowledge to end this long drawn out war?" Sean said  
  
"Exactly. When you are ready you can tell us what happened in the battle step by step" Elvis said and Sean nodded.  
  
When they arrived Bea Tles and another Maian stood in front of the ship with a line of 20 protectors on each side.   
  
"Greetings Earth Warriors, I am the Maian Leader, King whatever you people call it.. Jonathan is it? You've met Bea Tles I understand" The Maian Leader said  
  
"Yes" Jonathan replied  
  
"You are Sean is that correct? The one who killed the Skedar prince?" The Maian Leader asked  
  
"Yes, this is a wonderful place" Sean said looking around, but tried to keep eye contact with the Maian Leader. The Maian protectors gave Sean a salute. He was taken aback as he looked at the all those Maians stare at him as if he was some kind of all powerful being.   
  
"Hmm… it's not that great, Earth is what I call wonderful. Varied climates, some open spaces, lots of water, the list is endless according to your research Elvis." The Maian Leader said, Jonathan and Sean noticed his pronunciation of Elvis' name was a little unusual, starting with an A sound.   
  
"If Sean is ready he can tell us the secret of the Skedar shields" Bea Tles said  
  
"Very well" the Maian Leader replied  
  
Sean and Jonathan with Elvis, Bea Tles and the Maian leader walked into one of the buildings.   
  
"This is your halves…" The Maian Leader said  
  
"Quarters, I think you mean" Bea Tles said  
  
"Oh of course" The Maian Leader chuckled "Learning your language hasn't been easy… actually only the 5 of us understand a word of it, but that doesn't matter. The Maian race looks on both of you as heroes, for you Jonathan rescuing a large amount of protectors, and then destroying the planet. For Sean killing the most savage of Skedar aside the King himself" The Maian leader said  
  
"We are honoured" Jonathan replied  
  
"Excellent, if you are ready you may tell us now what the secret is, I am anxious to hear it" the Maian Leader said  
  
"With respect, Sean was just attacked by multiple Skedar, at least 20 of them according to Carrington" Elvis said  
  
"No, I am ready. Whatever you used Elvis is really fantastic. If we had stuff like that, our hospitals would be very efficient" Sean said  
  
"This is one of the reasons why we are eager to make a political contact. There are many things we have that you want, and many things you have that we want" The Maian leader said "Unfortunately, we too understand Carrington's logic, at this time the Skedar are still on the planet and will be with or without the ceasefire. As well as that, they may not be ready as Carrington also told us" The Maian Leader replied  
  
"So are you ready?" Sean asked  
  
"We shall move in there" Bea Tles said as they walked into a room that looked very similar to Carrington's office.   
  
Jonathan, Sean, and the 3 Maians sat down.  
  
"You may begin when ready" The Maian leader said  
  
"After I rescued the British Prime Minister from 2 Skedar, he ran and left me with just one Skedar, the prince" Sean told them  
  
"Forgive me, but what is British and what is a Prime Minister" The Maian leader asked  
  
"Britain is like a country on Earth, and a Prime Minister is a political leader" Elvis explained  
  
"I see, do continue" The Maian leader replied  
  
"The Skedar and I got into a fire fight, and I slowly worked down the shield of his but then when it got to its weakest point the Skedar lay on the floor and I kept attacking and it regenerated. I couldn't understand it" Sean said  
  
"That's the problem we've had for years. We want to make a clean quick kill but the shield regenerates and either our assassin gets killed or the King calls in back up which in turn kills or captures the would be assassin" Bea Tles said  
  
"So what's the big solution" The Maian Leader rubbed his hands and asked eagerly   
  
"After a while I worked out I couldn't defeat him merely by gun fire, so I lured him underneath a monument with a sharp edge and lower his shield to nothing. I then shot the monument and it fell impaling him and this killed him" Sean said  
  
Silence filled the room for a good minute. The Maian Leader and Bea Tles were talking in Maian so neither Sean nor Jonathan could understand.  
  
"It would be difficult to get such a position though" the Maian leader said  
  
"Of course, however don't the Skedar have those religious stone monuments with a sharp edge?" Sean asked  
  
"Very true… if this is ever needed this knowledge it is indeed useful. I know even if this ceasefire goes ahead the Skedar aren't going to stop with weaker attacks on our smaller planets. Until we find their main planet wherever it is, this war will never be over. We all know this, but at least half the battle has been won, but finding the planet would be the other half" The Maian Leader said  
  
"Hmm, the next meeting for the ceasefire is ready to take place" Bea Tles looked at a strange tank the size of a fish bowl filled with bluish liquid that seemed to move, Jonathan guessed this was the Maian equivalent of a clock.   
  
"We are never going get them off your back, even though you've told us what we want to know. The Skedar are very vengeful, however as Elvis told you, stay here until we are assured it is safe" The Maian Leader said  
  
"You mean the Skedar are here?" Jonathan said  
  
"Yes but do not fear, they are thoroughly searched and go through various checks even before they are allowed on the planet, one of their conditions was that the talks take place on our planet. Of course little did they know the parts of the planet they are allowed to see will be changed when negotiations finish, so the knowledge they have will be useless" Bea Tles chuckled.   
  
They moved to this meeting room about 30 seconds by foot away from where they just were, Sean and Jonathan sat down with a bunch of Maians who were watching proceedings. What each speaker said was translated in English, Maian and Skedar by a computer in front of the person who spoke the respective language. 5 Skedar sat a desk on one side and 5 Maians on the other, including Elvis,   
  
The Skedar spoke first as Jonathan and Sean read off the screen.  
  
"We agree with all of the conditions listed except for one. The King agrees to remove all those on the death list except for one, the human. As such we cannot agree to this" The computer had on the screen.  
  
"You really want him that badly?" One of the Maians replied in Maian of course.  
  
"Indeed" The same Skedar replied "Although I know he is present unlike most Skedar we do not kill, we negotiate"   
  
"So you are telling us you will go to war simply to kill one person that isn't even a Maian" Another Maian replied  
  
"Indeed" The Skedar repeated  
  
"That is crazy. He's told us we wanted to know, so now there is no reason to chase him down" Elvis said  
  
"You are willing to risk your own life as you are on this list of 4 I believe, just to protect one stupid human?" Another Skedar stood up as the two before him sat  
  
"You are willing to lose this war because of this one human?" Elvis replied and the other Maians sat  
  
"Listen, we don't write the rules, the King said if we didn't get what we want don't sign it" The same Skedar replied  
  
The Maian group chatted for a while. None of what they said was coming up on screen, the Skedar too exchanged conversation.  
  
"Then we go to war" Elvis said  
  
"So be it" The Skedar replied  
  
"Wait just a moment" Another Skedar stood up this one hadn't spoken yet  
  
"What? They are never going to agree" The Skedar stared at his partner  
  
"Let's give them time to negotiate between themselves and possibly their allies as well as I see them in the crowd. Maybe they will change their minds" He replied.   
  
"Very well. About a 20 minute break" The Skedar said, the message was a little slower to come through, probably because the computer was translating the time period the Skedar said.   
  
"I don't see the point but whatever" Elvis replied as the Maians and Skedar left the room.  
  
Sean and Jonathan joined the Maian group in another room with Bea Tles and the Maian Leader.  
  
"Are you telling me all that is keeping you signing that paper is my life?" Sean asked them  
  
"In a way yes, but we know the Skedar will try to get away with what they can. It's not just your life, it's where you live, on Earth. What if you were killed by a bunch of strange creatures in the middle of a city or something, can you imagine the consequences. Who knows what could happen, the Skedar may take it a further step and concentrate a full assault on Earth while they are there. They won't be able to send squads of Skedar if they are fighting because they'll be too busy fighting the war, as a result it will protect your planet" Elvis explained  
  
Sean thought for a moment…  
  
"He has a point Sean, I mean if the Skedar come here we may not be strong enough to get rid of them without Maian help and by that time the Skedar could have killed thousands, maybe more. However on the other hand, you could lose thousands of Maians fighting this war" Jonathan replied  
  
"Yes we know the Skedar would never agree to restrictions on your planet. For the moment you are able to handle them according to Elvis is this correct?" The Maian leader asked  
  
"For the moment, yes" Sean replied  
  
"Then it's settled, we go to war" The Maian leader said  
  
"You do not want to go to war and I know it" Sean said  
  
"No, but what choice do we have? The Skedar will never agree" Bea Tles replied shaking his head  
  
"I have a plan that will work out without you going to war" Sean said  
  
"Go on" The Maian leader said  
  
"If I may be allowed to do this, I could…" Sean stopped "No, it won't work"   
  
"Go on, we would do almost anything for it to work out for both of us" The Maian Leader said  
  
"You have the restriction on the planet right?" Sean asked  
  
"Yes. No Skedar can come anywhere near the planet unless it's for diplomatic reasons, which pretty much means this is a No Skedar Zone" The Maian Leader said  
  
"A human can live here right? I could live here I guess. This is the only way I can think of that will work for both of our races, but if it's a big inconvenience or I can't live here for a long period of time or whatever, what you do is up to you" Sean said  
  
The Maian Leader thought for a moment.  
  
"It is no problem at all for us, it would be perfect. However are you sure you wish to do this to yourself, just to protect us, just to give us what we want?" The Maian leader asked   
  
"I'm positive. I could stay here and report to Carrington about your planet" Sean said  
  
"That's a fantastic idea, if you are willing. Not only this, you could train the protectors as well. From what I hear from Elvis you know more about Maian and Skedar politics then most Maians do" The Maian leader said sounding overjoyed.   
  
"We should head back" Bea Tles said  
  
"Very true" The Maian Leader replied as Elvis and the 4 other Maians headed back into the room.  
  
The Skedar entered not long after…  
  
"So do you still declare war or not?" The Skedar asked. This was the one who had barely said a word in the previous discussion.  
  
"We do not declare war" Elvis replied  
  
"On what conditions?" The Skedar asked  
  
"The same ones you agreed to, which excludes the one not allowing you to give chase on the human" Elvis said  
  
"Hmm. May I ask the human to sit on your end of the table" The Skedar asked  
  
"Why?" Elvis asked suspiciously   
  
"Because, I want to see why he values his life, less than yours" The Skedar said  
  
"Hmm… guards check them" Elvis ordered  
  
"Honestly!" The Skedar replied as a bunch of Maians checked the Skedar   
  
"Checks are complete. Nothing found" The Maians said  
  
"Very well… Sean?" Elvis said  
  
Sean stood up and walked behind the table and stood up next to Elvis.   
  
"Firstly, how long do you expect to last to the squads? You know you will be killed or captured fairly quickly" The Skedar said. Sean read what he had said and replied.   
  
"Not long, although I'm still standing for the moment" Sean said  
  
"Yes, we heard about your latest battle against us. Although as I already said, that we are purely looking in the interest of peace" The Skedar said  
  
"Do you really expect us to believe that" Sean replied  
  
"Of course not, although I worded that badly. We as in us 5. We are personally against the condition to destroy your life, but if we didn't push it the King would have us killed" The Skedar said. Maybe not all Skedar were merciless monsters after all, Sean thought.  
  
"However I am a little suspicious of how quickly you agreed. Is there something in this agreement that stops the Skedar army killing him?" The Skedar said and one his partners looked through the conditions.  
  
"Nothing I can see" The Skedar replied as he flicked through the pages of conditions   
  
"Afraid not. There is a condition" Elvis said  
  
"I can't see anything here that says we can't touch him or can't go near Earth" The standing Skedar said  
  
"Yes but you can't come near here" Elvis replied  
  
"How is this relevant" The Skedar said  
  
"As long as Sean is here, you Skedar can't touch him" Elvis said  
  
Silence filled the room. Sean expected the Skedar to go into a rage and stood back a little, but instead he seemed to be happy.  
  
"Absolutely brilliant. Was this your idea?" The Skedar said  
  
"Mine?" Sean asked  
  
"Yes, you" The Skedar replied  
  
"Well yes…" Sean said not knowing what the Skedar would do.  
  
"That's fantastic, I mean the King will be fuming if he found out, but what he doesn't know can't hurt him. I am not going to be the one who tells him that the human himself found a loophole to evade our forces" The Skedar said  
  
"So you agree?" Elvis asked  
  
"Of course" The Skedar replied  
  
The 5 Skedar signed the agreement, Sean couldn't believe that the Skedar had just agreed to the ceasefire, Jonathan looked equally confused. However the Maians didn't look confused or puzzled at all by the Skedar's strange agreeable nature. The Maians signed the agreement and then the Maians handed the lead Skedar a Mauler, Jonathan was puzzled yet again as Elvis took a Phoenix and the two of them knocked them against each other and handed them back. The Maians broke out in applause.   
  
"I hope I won't be seeing you for a while then" The Skedar leader said  
  
"I hope not either" Elvis replied   
  
The Skedar were taken to their ship and it took off and left.  
  
"Why were the Skedar so agreeable?" Jonathan asked not being able to hold the question any longer  
  
"Well, they are controlled by fear. One toe out of line and the King has them killed, however they were completely obeying the King's orders. That is why they seemed so happy and agreed since they won't be killed and got what they wanted, they didn't want war either but for fear of their own lives they had to do whatever the King wanted, several Skedar diplomats have died before them. If they had it their way the ceasefire would have been agreed to on the first day" Elvis explained  
  
"And why did you knock weapons against each other?" Joanthan asked  
  
"It's the equivalent of shaking hands" Sean answered for Elvis  
  
"Ah I see" Jonathan said  
  
Parties on the Maian planet started as the news was spread around the Maian planet by use of their boards on buildings. It read in English, Skedar agree to ceasefire after Sean Lombreson, who killed the Skedar prince finds a loophole in the agreement to protect his life and planet without going to war. Jonathan Dark who destroyed the Skedar planet is also present on the planet. In sport, Del Waino wins the Peloroka against Onsneta 74 to 63.  
  
"What's Peloroka?" Sean asked  
  
"Err… the best way I can describe it to you is a twisted mix between basketball, water polo and paintball" Elvis said "It's something that has to be seen to be believed"   
  
Night soon fell which was very similar to Earth and the way sun rotated around the planet, but the Maian sun was a bit smaller then Earth's but the Maian planet was closer to the Sun and the planet itself is a bit bigger then Earth. Jonathan and Sean drunk dinner, fish tonight. Then they headed back to the place where they would sleep later.   
  
"Hey Sean, this sounds a little bit mushy but I'm going to miss you" Jonathan said, Sean gave a smile.  
  
"You're not going yet, you're here until tomorrow night" Sean reminded him  
  
"I know but still, I don't know how you are going to do this. I mean I don't have much of a life on Earth, but I couldn't throw it all away" Jonathan said  
  
"It's not like I'm never coming back, it will be a long time though" Sean said  
  
"Elvis tells me that there is a combat simulator that is really good. Wanna try it?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Sure" Sean replied  
  
Elvis was nearby and were told where he was. It was quite hard to find the way but eventually they got there.  
  
"You said something about a combat simulator mind if we check it out?" Jonathan asked  
  
"No problem" Elvis replied   
  
They walked again through the busy city but it wasn't far away.   
  
Elvis said something in Maian to some of the Maians around. A group of Maians flocked Elvis, Jonathan and Sean and all said something different in Maian to all of them. Elvis then shouted something and it must have worked because they all went quiet.   
  
"They want to play a game with you, I think. We'll play this way, you get a pistol and go around and try to kill your opponents. One shot will kill, but if you die you reappear somewhere else? Got it?" Elvis asked  
  
"Sure" Jonathan said   
  
"Seems easy enough" Sean said  
  
"Although what weapons do we get?" Jonathan asked  
  
"Anything that we have found, including both of your usual weapons" Elvis explained "So I assume this is what you want?" Elvis asked  
  
"Definitely" Jonathan said  
  
"This is the rules, at the end of each minute the being with the lowest score is eliminated from the game. The winner is last man standing" Elvis explained  
  
Jonathan and Sean with 6 other Maians including Elvis were taken in and placed at various points in a simulated area. It seemed real, the walls, the grass, even the sunlight. No time for looking as a Maian approached Jonathan's right and he aimed his Magnum and hit him down. Elvis entered their names into a computer before and there were scoreboards and Jonathan saw himself on 1 because of his kill, a timer was ticking down from 1 minute, Jonathan was reading this information before getting hit by a shot, taking him by surprise and knocking him on the ground.  
  
"Hey sorry man" Sean said smiling reloading his Falcon and taking out an enemy behind him.   
  
"You will be sorry soon" Jonathan replied before getting transported somewhere else  
  
Another Maian was in front of Jonathan but was in a fire fight with another, Jonathan took advantage a shot them both before taking cover and reloading. He noticed that Sean was taking down a lot of Maians as was on a score of 5 by the end of the first minute and hadn't been killed yet as somebody was removed from the game, Elvis was on 2 and had been killed once and Jonathan was on 3.   
  
Jonathan then went further down some steps and looked around the corner and spotted Sean and his Falcon 2 scope firing off killing a few. Jonathan knew Sean hadn't seen him as he sneaked around the next corner and took him down.   
  
"I told you'd be sorry" Jonathan said  
  
"Ah well, see you later" Sean said as he disappeared to reappear somewhere else  
  
This continued until there were only 4 left. It was between Sean who was on 20 kills, Elvis who was on 18, Jonathan who was on 16 and somebody else who was on 10. Jonathan then went around nailing Sean again followed by Elvis who tried to come behind, and was looking for another victim when the time eliminated somebody else, which put him in equal second place with 18. Elvis tried to be sneaky and nail Jonathan from behind but he heard him turned around and shot Elvis down, only to be shot in return by Sean.   
  
"Damn" Jonathan said to himself as he regenerated. At the end of that minute Elvis was eliminated. Sean had 21 and Jonathan had 19. However Jonathan heard Sean's footsteps and jumped out and nailed him in a single shot with his Magnum.   
  
Jonathan tried to find Sean quickly but he got the feeling Sean was trying to avoid him, time was running out. He continued to look around the corridors but there was no sign of him. With 10 seconds left, Sean came from behind and shot but Jonathan moved behind a wall and Sean missed and tried to wait for Jonathan to come out of his hiding place but Jonathan waited until the last second to jump out, he fired and hit him, ending the match in a 21 all draw. After that they were warped back to the entrance.  
  
"Nice shooting guys. I was hoping one of you would win though" Elvis said  
  
"Ah well, it was really great though. Thanks Elvis" Sean said  
  
"Yeah it was great, nice to be beaten once in a while" Elvis replied  
  
The next day came and it was time for Jonathan to leave. Sean talked to Carrington, and Carrington said he was pleased and glad, but would miss him being around. Carrington understood Sean's reasons, and welcomed him back whenever he wished to return but Carrington knew this wouldn't be for sometime.   
  
"Good luck Jonathan" Sean said  
  
"You too" Jonathan replied  
  
The two went to shake hands, but instead gave a hug and patted each other on the back.   
  
"Say hi to everybody for me" Sean said as Jonathan got on the Maian ship   
  
"Oh I will, keep in touch. See you" Jonathan said as the ship closed as the Maian pilot took off.  
  
"So sad. I wonder if I'll ever see him again" Elvis asked  
  
"You will. I bet on it" Sean replied  
  
Thanks again for all your reviews etc. etc.   
  
I know that might not have been the ideal way to move Sean away from the storyline but I had to it somehow, and killing him off was used before in the form of Natasha. So now that's done I can start my new fic that will come sometime soon, but I may not be able to update it as often as I did this one. I'm still deciding whether to write extra chapters for this or not. It's been great guys, look forward to your reviews for my next fic.  
  
Special thanks to Spider bear, Chistalina who were my main reviewers and also to DJ cat who read parts of this but didn't review it because he wanted to wait until it was finished before reading it all. 


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